Nizhny Novgorod is the Pocket of Russia. Patrons of the arts Blinov About the glorious family of merchants Burmistrovy

Dedicated to Arina Agapevna

Essay by Lidia Alexandrovna Davydova-Pecherkina about house No. 46 on Novaya Street

Nizhny Novgorod is an ancient merchant city located on the Dyatlov Mountains at the confluence of two great rivers - the Volga and Oka.

Nizhny Novgorod residents are undoubtedly patriots of their city, they love it, they study its history, the history of its streets and houses, they are interested in known historical information about the city, about the life of its people. Under certain circumstances, many people have a need to find deeper and little-known historical details. This is what happened to our family.

We were attracted by Novaya Street, calm and cozy, like a tent, covered with a green crown of poplars, where in 1976 we moved to the house, which is listed at number 46. Not only I, but also my mother Arina Agapevna, who inspired me to historical research. I dedicate my modest work on the history of Nizhny and our home to her.

Historical and other research was carried out in the following areas: determining the year the house was built, identifying its former owners, and the artistic and architectural value of the house.

My research was supported by the inspector of the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region A.A. Shalavina; employees of the research enterprise (SRE) "Ethnos" A.I. Davydov, I.S. Agafonova, A.Yu. Abrosimova, G.V. Smirnova, who made conclusions about the historical and architectural significance of the house and its technical condition; Great assistance when working with archival documents was provided by the director of the Central Archives of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (CANO) V.A. Kharlamov, the chief specialist of the CANO G.A. Deminova and other archive employees; technical and material assistance was provided by the general director of the Akritex company L.S. Dorogova and the director of the technical company "Dyatlovy Gory" (now PC Avangard) O.N. Markelova.

An examination of the house was also carried out by employees of the Museum of the History of Arts and Crafts of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, art historians N.V. Panfilova and M.V. Boykachev, who paid attention not only to the external decor of the house, which I considered the most important issue, but also to its interior interiors. Museologists explained the academic eclecticism of the house's design and gave an opinion on the artistic historical value of the decor of the house and its surroundings; the house, although a separate object, is an integral part of the city.

The title “Old Nizhny...” was given to the essay with the blessing of the deputy of the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod region (OZS) Alexander Alekseevich Serikov, the organizer of the exhibition “Old Nizhny” successfully held in Nizhny Novgorod several times in 2005-2006. People. Streets. Yards." Alexander Alekseevich Serikov – Chairman of the OZS Committee

on Housing Policy and Urban Planning inspired me to present my archival research and publish it in an essay.

1. Year the house was built and the formation of Novaya Street

The study of the history of the house began with studying the history of Novaya Street. In the book by Nikolai Filippovich Filatov “Nizhny Novgorod. Architecture of the 14th – early 20th centuries”, a brief description of it is given: “Novaya Street crosses Novaya Square (now M. Gorky Square) to Napolno-Monastyrskaya Street, was designed in 1835 by architects Ivan Efimovich Efimov and Pyotr Danilovich Gotman and actively began to be built in 1857-1858, when the red line of New Square was determined, which was facilitated by the considerable efforts of the city architect Nikolai Ivanovich Uzhumedsky-Gritsevich, who was working at that time in this area of the city.”

From Elizaveta Nikolaevna Sheina, the granddaughter of Ivan Pavlovich Shein, who acquired house No. 46 with a plot of land on Novaya Street in 1891, it became known that this house was 120 years old in 1976 and the architect was Gritsevich (that is, the house was supposedly built in 1856 year).

Searches in the archives revealed an interesting site plan, according to which the land for the continuation of Novaya Street

from Novaya Square to Bolshaya Yamskaya Street was alienated

from the tradesman Kosarev, the merchant Burmistrov and the tradeswoman Kuzmina.

On the plot owned by Burmistrov there was house No. 46 (the number is modern). There was no date on the plan; it was signed by the architect Grigoriev. Nikolai Dmitrievich Grigoriev, a “free artist,” was appointed architect of the city council in 1880. It can be assumed that the land for buildings at the end of Novaya Street was alienated in the 80s of the 19th century and house No. 46

on Novaya Street already existed at that time.

When studying the “Salary book of the Nizhny Novgorod City Council of the 1st Kremlin part for 1888-1891. Book 3” it turns out that the tax for the house, which previously belonged to the heirs of the merchant Mikhail Vasilyevich Burmistrov, then to the tradesman M.G. Nikolaev, was levied on the peasant Ivan Pavlovich Shein. Thus, a “thread” was found leading to the former owners of the house - the family of the merchant Burmistrov.

Nizhny Novgorod historian Nikolai Ivanovich Khramtsovsky points out: “According to its natural location, the city was divided into three parts: upper, lower, overseas; and according to the police - into 4 parts: Kremlevskaya 1, Kremlevskaya 2, Rozhdestvenskaya and Makaryevskaya.” According to the police department, the upper part of the city was divided into two more sections, and Novaya Street belonged to the 1st Kremlin part.

Familiarization with the “Account Book on the State Tax on Real Estate in Nizhny Novgorod for 1871” confirms that house No. 46 in 1871 belonged to the merchant of the first guild, Mikhail Vasilyevich Burmistrov.

The studied plans for the construction of houses on Novaya Street state that this street was built up in the forties, and not in the late 50s of the 19th century, as noted by N.F. Filatov. Already in 1844, many houses with outbuildings and services were built on Novaya Street. The then famous families of merchants Konstantin Latin, Alexei Dmitrievich Chistyakov, and entrepreneurs Ostastoshnikov settled here, who had a store on Blagoveshchenskaya Square (now Minin Square) with goods in the form of women's wisdom, men's toilets, cigars, and tobacco. Enterprising people who had the goal of opening shops and other household establishments could not afford to build from scratch, because... in 1770, a plan was considered by the Synod and confirmed by Empress Catherine II, according to which the central part of the cities was to be built up exclusively with stone houses, and in the “near-city” it was allowed to build “wooden houses, but always on stone foundations, mezzanines, basements.” This was also stated in the project plan of 1835, conformed in 1839, according to which the construction of Novaya Street was carried out (masonry at that time was much more expensive than wooden construction).

Consequently, Novaya Street was already equipped in the early 40s of the 19th century; all plans of houses built at that time (and later) contain drawings of the facades of houses on stone foundations. The arrangement of Novaya Street was supervised by the architect of the City Council Nikolai Ivanovich Uzhumedsky-Gritsevich. This architect designed many houses along Novaya Street and the adjacent Bolshaya Yamskaya Street. It can be argued that house No. 46 on Novaya Street was also designed by Uzhumedsky-Gritsevich, because the style of the house and its interior spaces is very similar to other houses that this wonderful architect designed. This assumption is confirmed by archival documents and information from Elizaveta Nikolaevna Sheina, who did not name the architect’s first name either out of forgetfulness or ignorance.

So, we can conclude: Novaya Street began its formation in the 40s of the 19th century. All plans for the construction of houses indicated not only their location in relation to other streets and Novaya Square, but also the address: “1st Kremlin part, Novaya Street” - that is, the topographical position of the street and its legal administrative address status were determined.

Novaya Street was finally formed in the 80s of the 19th century, when the last sections of private property were alienated to extend it. It took almost 40 years to break through Novaya Street through the already inhabited territory of the city.

New Square and New Street acquired their name due to their later formation (institution) compared to the surrounding area. But New Square changed its name more than once: Arrestantskaya (since in the building of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs there was a women’s prison or workhouse, called the “Arrest Company”), Novo-Bazarnaya, Staro-Konyushnaya, 1st May and, finally, Square M .Gorky.

On New Square, bazaars were held and food was sold (mainly meat), which is why it was called Novo-Bazarnaya. In 1899 - 1900, the City Duma decided to build a veterinary station on this square, and in 1914, on the corner of Zvezdinka and Novo-Bazarnaya Square, a microscopic station. In the same archival document this square is called both Novaya and Novo-Bazarnaya.

There was also a square with the name “Novo-Bazarnaya” in the Makaryevskaya part of Nizhny Novgorod; bazaars were also held on this square for the residents of Kunavin.

The name of the street “Novaya” has been preserved to this day for more than 160 years of its history, although the streets adjacent to it have been renamed more than once, and now few people remember their old names. Napolno-Monastyrskaya street became the street named after Belinsky, Kanatnaya - Korolenko, Polevaya - M. Gorky, Pryadilnaya - Maslyakova, Arkhangelskaya - Vorovsky, Gotmanovskaya (in honor of the architect I.D. Gotman) - Kostin, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya - was Sverdlova street, Bolshaya Yamskaya - Ilyinskaya, and Arkhangelskaya Square no longer exists without a name, and residents now call it “the square of 5 corners.”

Particularly noteworthy are Bolshaya Yamskaya and Ilyinskaya streets. Ilyinskaya Street was formed a long time ago, it begins at the “foot” of the Zelensky Congress and goes up - “to Ilyinsky Mountain”, passing by the Ascension Church, ending at the city outpost, which was a fortified wooden structure that separated the entrance to the city at night in the 18th century (that was the end of the city). At the end of the 18th century, this structure with the formation of Malaya Pokrovskaya Street (formerly Vorobyov Street) was replaced by portable slingshots - gratings, hence, apparently, the name of the chapel in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God “chapel at the grating on Malaya Pokrovka”; and people often said: “I’ll go to the store on Reshetka” (when there was a grocery store at the intersection of Oboznaya, Malaya Pokrovskaya and Gogol streets - in the old days Velyachaya, renamed in 1912 in honor of the 100th anniversary of N.V. Gogol).

Behind the “lattice” there were spinning factories and Yamskaya Sloboda. (The people in Yamskaya Sloboda were special, distinguished by their freedom). In place of Yamskaya Sloboda, the following streets appeared: Bolshaya Yamskaya, Malaya Yamskaya, 3rd Yamskaya, Oboznaya. Part of Bolshaya Yamskaya Street (from Pryadilnaya Street to Krestovozdvizhenskaya Square) according to the Salary Book for 1857 was designated as Bolshaya Alekseevskaya Street. According to the author, this entry was erroneous, since in the same book the same part of the street was indicated on other sheets of Bolshaya Yamskaya: for example, the location of Pryadilnaya Street was indicated from Novaya Square to Bolshaya Alekseevskaya, part of Polevaya Street (M. Gorky) - from Novaya square to Bolshaya Yamskaya. In later salary books, in memory of Yamskaya Sloboda, it was called and officially designated Bolshaya Yamskaya Street. By the end of the 19th century, this street was a continuation of Ilyinskaya Street and lost its name, and Ilyinskaya Street in Soviet times was called Krasnoflotskaya (in 1918, at number 50, the headquarters of the command of the Volga Military Flotilla was located on it).

2. Former owners of house No. 46 on the street. New

According to the information of the city Salary Books on the collection of taxes from real estate, the question of the location of the house of the merchant M.V. Burmistrova seems somewhat complicated and uncertain.

According to the Salary Book for 1888-1891, the house was located on Novaya Street in the 3rd quarter; according to the Salary Book for 1871, two houses of Burmistrov are indicated - in quarters 2 and 3 (the street is not defined).

According to the Salary Book for 1877 (Book 1), the house of the merchant Burmistrov was located on the right side of Ilyinskaya Street, and according to Book 2, on the left side of Bolshaya Yamskaya Street (side of the Ascension Church).

According to the Salary Book for 1881, after the death of the merchant M.V. Burmistrova, the house is located on Ilyinskaya Street, in the 2nd quarter and belonged to the merchant children Dmitry, Peter, Alexandra.

At that time, Bolshaya Yamskaya street was often called Ilyinskaya, because there was no sharp transition between streets with the elimination of the “grid”, and there was no clear definition of the name of the street “Bolshaya Yamskaya” or “Ilyinskaya” then.

To clarify the location of the Burmistrovs' house, one can proceed from a comparison of data identified during the study of other archival documents.

Houses indicated in the Salary Books for 1888-1891 (in block 3 on Novaya Street), for 1871 (in block 3) and in Book 2 for 1877 on the left side of Bolshaya Yamskaya Street (worth 112 rubles. 20 kop.), represent the same house on Novaya Street (modern house No. 46).

Until 1880, Novaya Street was not fully formed; the house of the merchant Burmistrov was located on the left side of Bolshaya Yamskaya Street (on the side of the Ascension Church), but later it began to belong to Novaya Street. This is confirmed by the correction in the Salary Book for 1888-1891 of the name of Bolshaya Yamskaya Street to Novaya Street.

The houses indicated in the Salary Books: for 1871 (block 2), for 1877 (on the right side of Ilyinskaya street) and for 1881 (on Ilyinskaya street of the 2nd block) also indicate the house of the merchant M.V. Burmistrova, but at a different cost - 2500 rubles, located on Ilyinskaya Street, not far from the Mariinskaya Women's Gymnasium (house of the merchant Loshkarev - house No. 49).

Upon further research of archival documentation, earlier information about the merchant Burmistrov and house No. 46 was revealed. So, according to the Salary Book for 1857, this house belonged to Burmistrov and was valued on January 25, 1850 at 200 rubles. It can be argued that it existed in 1849, but the exact date of its construction has not yet been determined. Despite the fact that in this book the house was listed in the 6th quarter, and not in the 3rd, as indicated in later salary books, it can be argued that we are talking about house No. 46, since Kuzmina’s house is located next door , whose land plot was alienated at the same time as that of the merchant Burmistrov.

At the end of this part of the essay, the chronology of house No. 46 on Novaya Street is indicated:

1849 – the year the house was built (presumably);

From 1857 to 1887, the house belonged to the Burmistrov merchant families;

From 1887 to 1891, the house was owned by tradesman Mikhail Grigorievich Nikolaev, who bought it from the heirs of the merchant M.V. Burmistrova;

From 1891 to 1917, the house was owned by the peasant Ivan Pavlovich Shein, who bought the house from Nikolaev; then his heirs.

Until 1976, the granddaughter of the farmer I.P. lived in the house, although it was state property. Sheina - Elizaveta Nikolaevna Sheina, a kind, intelligent, pretty woman, she died on June 30, 1989 at the age of 84 and was buried in the village of Vyazovka, Dalne-Kontantinovsky district. When describing the house where she lived all her life, it is impossible not to mention her.

So, house No. 46 on Novaya Street belonged to the glorious merchant family of the Burmistrovs, and the last part of this section of the essay is dedicated to the Burmistrov merchants.

About the glorious family of merchants Burmistrovy

Mikhail Vasilyevich Burmistrov came from a Nizhny Novgorod merchant family; his father Vasily Dmitrievich was declared a merchant of the 3rd guild back in 1825. For some time, Mikhail Vasilyevich was registered as a merchant of the 3rd guild in the city of Semenov, Nizhny Novgorod province.

He and his wife Elizaveta Mikhailovna had 11 children, but three remained adults:

The information was obtained from the metric book of the Ascension Church, stored in the Central Academy of Sciences. (If you look at the entries in this book

about born children, it is pleasantly surprising that before babies

in Rus' they were baptized in the first week after their birth. Maybe that’s why the Russian people were considered pious and hospitable?).

According to metric records, Mikhail Vasilyevich was listed as a Nizhny Novgorod merchant from 1842. According to the archival document “Information about merchants and their capital in the city of N. Novgorod, 1846.” Burmistrov was ranked among the merchants of the 3rd guild of Nizhny Novgorod by decree of the Treasury Chamber No. 6639 of December 31, 1845. According to reports about merchants M.V. Burmistrov was listed

in 1856, a merchant of the second guild, and in 1865, a merchant of the first guild.

From 1840 to 1842, Burmistrov served as a deputy for collecting ship duties. Mikhail Vasilyevich had authority and great trust; from 1846 to 1848 he was not only the Speaker of the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod, but also its treasurer. Burmistrov was actively involved in charity work. Apparently, for his significant charitable assistance, the City Society of Nizhny Novgorod elected him on December 12, 1875 to the Board of Trustees of the first women's Mariinsky Gymnasium in Nizhny Novgorod (now the building of the Nizhny Novgorod Academy of Construction and Architecture - NNGASU is located there). Great support for the maintenance of the gymnasium prompted the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod after the death (March 6, 1877) of M.V. Burmistrov to elect his son D.M. Burmistrova

to the Board of Trustees of the Mariinsk Women's Gymnasium, for this purpose the Head of the Nizhny Novgorod Council addresses him:

From the Nizhny Novgorod City Council

Nizhny Novgorod merchant

Burmistrov Dmitry Mikhailovich

You were elected by the City Duma at its meeting on February 20

member of the Council of the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium. The City Council, notifying you, humbly asks you to come to the Presence of the Council on the 1st of next March at 12 noon to take the oath of allegiance to service..."

Upon assuming this position, Dmitry Mikhailovich takes an oath - a sworn promise:

The “Oath Promise” is not only a formal, but also a spiritual document, imbued with the feeling of faithfully serving the Fatherland.

The socially useful activities of Dmitry Mikhailovich Burmistrov are not limited to the guardianship of the gymnasium, a member of whose committee he was elected by the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma several times. On November 28, 1880, the Duma elected him for an indefinite period as a member of the Trustee Committee of the Mariinsky Maternity Institution (currently Maternity Hospital No. 1 in Nizhny Novgorod); since 1881, the General Meeting of Commissioners - “candidates” for the Elders of the Fair Exchange Committee for 3 years: 1881-1883, 1885-1887, 1888-1890, 1891-1893, 1894-1894; City electoral assembly - a member (deputy) of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma

permanently for four years, starting in 1883. All members of the Duma swore an oath.

“With the permission of the HIGHEST EMPRESS, which followed on May 25, 1883, he was determined to be an Honorary Member of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Trusteeship of Children's Shelters.” For the four-year period 1886-1889, the Nizhny Novgorod Duma elected him to the accounting committee of the Nikolaev City Public Bank. On June 26, 1889, the Minister of Finance was approved as a member of the accounting committee of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the state bank; in 1891, the City Duma was elected a second time to the accounting committee of the Nizhny Novgorod Nikolaev City Public Bank. This information was obtained from the formal list of his service, which is stored in TsANO (fond 30, inventory 35, file 2851). He sometimes had to refuse any position, which was due to the imposition of a more important burden on him.

D.M. Burmistrov, his brother Peter and sister Alexandra took an active part in the revival (reconstruction) of important buildings of Nizhny Novgorod, in particular, a trading house, a rooming house (on Rozhdestvenskaya, 2), built by the honorary citizen of Nizhny Novgorod A.A. Bugrov, combining with the activities entrepreneur (his stores were at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair).

But it was precisely for his charitable and socially useful activities that Dmitry Mikhailovich was awarded royal awards: Gold medals on the Stanislav and Annin ribbons with the right to wear them around his neck.

D.M. Burmistrov was married to Varvara Mikhailovna Rukavishnikova, the daughter of the merchant M.G. Rukavishnikova.

Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov and Mikhail Vasilyevich Burmistrov were friends and were members of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma. Both were involved in charity work and were members of the Board of Trustees of the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium.

Varvara Mikhailovna was the owner of a house on Zhukovskaya Street (now Minin Street). Now there is the State Museum of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, whose employees provided photographic portraits of the Burmistrovs, honorary members of the Office of the Institutions of the Empress Maria (V.U.I.M.).

“I sacrifice and care” - these words were the motto of the Rukavishnikov family. And the descendants of Mikhail Grigorievich continued his charitable activities. “The Rukavishnikovs cared about all the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, leaving visible material evidence of their affection and love for the city. But their most magnificent gift is a unique palace on the Escarpment, which belonged to Sergei Mikhailovich, built by him in the spring of 1877.” In this building, a local history museum was organized at the expense of the children of M.G. Rukavishnikov. Unfortunately, this beautiful building fell into disrepair. To date, through the efforts and great responsibility of the director of the museum, Veniamin Sergeevich Arkhangelsky, the Nizhny Novgorod Museum of Local Lore has been restored.

According to the acts of the meetings of the City Duma, Dmitry Mikhailovich Burmistrov in 1899 was often not present at them due to illness; on the lists, his name was crossed out with a red pencil, which was usually done by the clerk registering those present. From the meeting on July 9, 1899, his name began to be crossed out with a black pencil, and then from November 25, 1899, his name was not indicated at all on the lists of Duma vowels. In the “Gazette of the Nizhny Novgorod City Council on permanent merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds for 1900” under the heading “Depreciation” it is indicated:

To determine the exact date of death of Dmitry Mikhailovich, we had to turn to the metric book of the Ascension Church. According to the entry in this book, it was established that the merchant of the 1st guild Dmitry Mikhailovich Burmistrov died of heart disease on July 4, 1899; The funeral service was held for him in the Church of the Ascension, and he was buried on July 6 at the Kazan Cemetery. The cemetery was located near the Holy Cross Monastery (in the area of modern Lyadov Square) and received its name from the church located there in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. This cemetery, like the church, no longer exists; the grave of Dmitry Mikhailovich Burmistrov has not been preserved.

Dmitry Mikhailovich did a lot for Nizhny Novgorod, and for this he was worthily awarded with Tsar's awards. Dmitry Mikhailovich’s associates did not forget and included him in 1912 in the list of members of charitable institutions in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Perhaps for this reason, the encyclopedia “Who’s Who in the Nizhny Novgorod Region” erroneously indicated the year of Dmitry Mikhailovich’s death as 1912?

The time has long come to talk about the Burmistrov merchants, who are part of the wonderful galaxy of Nizhny Novgorod merchants and philanthropists:

3. Artistic and architectural value of the house.

House No. 46 on Novaya Street is interesting from an artistic and architectural point of view, which is confirmed by the results of research by experts from the Scientific Research Institute "Ethnos" and art historians from the Museum of the History of Arts and Crafts of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. Their reports are presented in the “Conclusion on the historical, scientific, artistic and other cultural value of house No. 46 on Novaya Street in the Nizhny Novgorod district of Nizhny Novgorod” (2004) and in the “Conclusion on the artistic and historical value of the carved decor of house No. 46 on Novaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod district of Nizhny Novgorod" (2005).

The house is a unique three-dimensional architectural composition:

From the front facade it looks like a small house, but inside it appears to be a 3-story building with many conveniently located rooms, storage rooms, nooks, and the dominant feature of the house is a hexagonal belvedere - the only surviving phenomenon of this kind in Nizhny Novgorod wooden architecture;

In the triangular pediment of the attic in the foreground there is a two-frame dormer window edged with a carved frame with a small wrought-iron balcony; the top of the attic is also decorated with carvings;

Under the windows of the first floor there are panels with blind carvings of floral ornaments - also a rare case in Nizhny Novgorod architecture.

The entire decor is a blind handmade carving of increased complexity, made in the form of small floral ornaments. For preservation, the carving is covered with a wide cornice. Apparently, the first owners of the house dreamed and hoped to preserve the delicate work of decorative masters for a long time? And it was achieved!

The decorative decoration of the house has a number of features noted by art critics:

The use of carved parts made in the traditions of Nizhny Novgorod blind carving;

Application of applied modeled thread;

Application of kerf thread parts;

The decor with fine detailed elaboration of the carved pattern and its compositional structure show the high professionalism of the craftsmen.

Museologists note that such carvings represent a large-scale artistic phenomenon in national Russian culture; the number of houses with Nizhny Novgorod carvings is decreasing every year. Therefore, the primary task of the present time is to preserve each example of such carvings, especially since in this case the entire object was preserved in good condition - a residential building located in the center of Nizhny Novgorod.

House No. 46 on Novaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod is considered by experts from the Research and Production Institute “Ethnos” to be “bright and unique objects of historical and cultural heritage.”

The house has been preserved due to the high quality of the original construction. The expert who examined the technical condition of the house noted that the foundation and walls were

in satisfactory condition.

In addition to the inspection results, the quality of construction can also be judged by the absence of fungi, mold and traces of the “activity” of wood bugs. Apparently, the wooden elements were subjected to special treatment and wood was used for the frame without squeezed resin (resin). From 1986 to 2000, considerable food supplies of pasta, cereals, and flour were stored in the house, and no living creatures were kept in them. The brickwork was done “conscientiously” (it is assumed that the strengthening mortar was made on the basis of lime and eggs); During the life of the house, not a single crack or subsidence was discovered; If you treat it with care, a house will last for centuries.

Afterword

The results of archival research and inspections of the house by specialist scientists were sent to the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region to confirm the category of value of the house, which had the status of a “valuable object of the historical and architectural environment” to be preserved. The Ministry of Culture, having received all the research materials, “noted” in 2005 that the status of the house was reduced to the “background category”, considering its preservation “inappropriate” due to “changes in the urban planning situation.” The Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Nizhny Novgorod Region adheres to the same conclusion, which contradicts not only the conclusions of experts, but also Article 29 of Federal Law No. 73-FZ “On objects of cultural heritage (historical and cultural monuments) of the peoples of the Russian Federation,” published in 2002. The author of this essay does not agree with this assessment. The house is a valuable object not only for Nizhny Novgorod residents, city guests also admire it, even foreigners take photographs of it; they are attracted by the unusualness of “unpretentious” patterns. The house is also valuable because for many years it belonged to the Burmistrov merchant family, one of the main cohort of Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurs and public figures of our city.

The hope that the house's status as a valuable object will be restored has not faded. Both Alexander Alekseevich Serikov and Deputy Minister for Housing Policy and Housing Fund of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Irina Evgenievna Nepomnik, a beautiful, sensitive woman, completely unlike an official, confirmed me in the idea that understanding and justice exist in Russia.

The house will also serve Nizhny Novgorod residents and guests of the city to recreate the image of Old Nizhny and its inexpensive estates.

The information presented in the essay is not complete. There is still a lot that needs to be studied and “brought up” from the archives of facts about the life and activities of the Burmistrov family, about their time, environment and the people around them. This essay is the beginning for further research in order to perpetuate the memory of the glorious Burmistrov family of merchants and highlight unknown or little-studied pages of the history of Nizhny Novgorod.

This essay was created in 2006, its main content is devoted to the main house of the estate of the Burmistrov merchants - house No. 46 on Novaya Street.

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CANO. Fund 570. Inventory 8, units. hr. 2
CANO. Fund 27. Inventory 638, items. archive 1786
CANO. Fund 27. Inventory 638, items. hr.2551
CANO. Fund 27. Inventory 638, items. hr.3209
CANO. Fund 27. Inventory 638, items. archive 1899
CANO. Fund 30. Inventory 35, units. hr. 1560

Fragment of the Burmistrovy merchants' estate. May 2008.

In the ancient “Scribe Books” the “best people” are called among the townspeople of Nizhny Novgorod, who along the Volga “go up and down in ships and who trade in large quantities with all sorts of goods.” Resourcefulness and ability to conduct business created fame for Nizhny Novgorod merchants. Favorable conditions, and sometimes, on the contrary, the most difficult obstacles, contributed to the advancement of the most capable and persistent people from the people into the merchant class, the first ranks of industrialists and financiers. Especially a lot of talents appeared in Russia in the last century during the post-reform era. The strongest turned out to be those from Old Believer families, where their upbringing was very harsh. Such immigrants became the backbone of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants.

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Introduction

They were strong and tenaciousmerchants Bugrovy . The Bugrovs are an eminent merchant family, and its entire history is inseparable from the Nizhny Novgorod fair. This connection went along two main lines: work at the fair and trade at it. The founder of the Bugrovsk company, Pyotr Egorovich, had already begun working for the fair. In his youth, he surfed the Volga and worked a lot for the benefit of the fair, pulling merchant ships to Macarius. When he “made it into the people” and became a transport contractor, he helped build a fair in Nizhny Novgorod, supplying rubble stone and other building materials. P.E. Bugrov began the main trade of his company at the fair - grain. Since 1829, he was the first in the Nizhny Novgorod province to establish a commercial flour milling industry, installing four large mills on his native Linda River, became the largest flour miller and developed a wide grain trade, primarily at the fair. Countrymen P.E. Bugrova, who inhabited the area around the villages of Kantaurovo, Tolokontsevo and Sitniki, rolled excellent felt boots and poyarka hats (made from the delicate wool of a young poyarka sheep). But they had serious difficulties in selling their products, which the buyers cleverly took advantage of by robbing artisans. Peter Egorovich helped his fellow countrymen: in 1832 he organized the sale of felted products at the fair on favorable terms for them. The greatest fame of P.E. Bugrov acquired as a skilled construction contractor. Construction work at the fair was considered the most profitable because it was stable and well paid. The fair construction contract consisted of two parts. The first is to build, maintain, dismantle, repair and store bridges until the next season. And there were a lot of them. The main one is the pontoon bridge across the Oka River. Then two bridges to Grebnevsky sands, 12 bridges across the bypass canal: four road bridges and eight pedestrian ones. The second part - temporary wooden structures, which included eight premises for the police, Cossack barracks with officer rooms, bunks, a kitchen, a stable, a shed, pike machines, a manger for food and a sentry box; 23 Cossack pickets with sheds for horses; two fire sheds with watchtowers, rooms for teams and horses; five guardhouses: three general, one for non-commissioned officers and one Cossack; premises for lamplighters and the sweeping crew (janitors). These are only mandatory buildings, and besides them, many others were required, the construction of which arose due to unforeseen needs. For a long time, the fair construction contract was alternately held in the hands of the venerable Nizhny Novgorod merchants Pyatov and Michurin. At first the peasant Bugrov was unable to compete with them. But his credibility in business circles helped. The fair construction contract was so extensive that V.K. In 1847, Michurin himself recruited Pyotr Yegorovich to become his subcontractor. In this work, Bugrov delved into the contents of the contract in detail and at the next auction in 1850 he threw down the gauntlet of a challenge to all competitors from the merchant class. A large deposit was required to participate in the auction. Pyotr Egorovich took a big risk by mortgaging his house on the Lower Volga embankment, valued at 11,754 rubles, and in a stubborn struggle snatched this prestigious contract from the hands of the merchants. The merchant A.M. bargained with him most persistently. Gubin. Bugrov defeated him with just one ruble: Gubin agreed to perform the contract for 81,601 rubles, and Bugrov took the contract for 81,600 rubles in silver (in banknotes the amount is 3.5 times more). This prestigious contract p.E. Bugrov held it tenaciously in his hands until his death in 1859, each time at the next auction held four years later, beating competitors with a reasonable price and high quality workmanship. Unfortunately, his heir, son Alexander, was unable to retain this profitable contract. But he found his place at the fair. Owning vast forests, Alexander Petrovich became the main supplier of building materials to the fair, supplying it with all kinds of timber. A.P. Bugrov significantly expanded flour-grinding production by installing two powerful mills in a new location, on the Seima River. As a result, the role of the Nizhny Novgorod fair in the sale of grocery products from the Bugrovsky company increased. In 1870, the Bugrovs rented 10 trading places at the fair, mainly in the flour row. But the fair, which was empty for ten months of the year, was often devastated by fires, especially its wooden part. After the big fire of 1872, the fair office sold all the trading places outside the main house and the guest courtyard into private hands. The merchants willingly agreed to this, but new construction was only allowed in stone. The Bugrovs skillfully took advantage of this. They did not restore all their previous trading positions, but in a busy place, at the beginning of Moscow (now Soviet) street, they erected three stone two-story trading buildings. The location turned out to be very good, next to the train station. It was possible to trade here not only during the fair season, but all year round. These houses were built so well that they still carry out their trading mission (Soviet, 20). Pyotr Yegorovich's grandson, Nikolai Alexandrovich, took an active part in the improvement of the fair. By the 80s of the 19th century, the main fair house with its two outbuildings had become so dilapidated that the commission for its reconstruction came to a disappointing conclusion: “no amount of repairs can ensure that the house and outbuildings are adapted to the modern requirements of the fair.” Therefore, the commission members “considered it more rational to dismantle the existing buildings to the ground and build one common new building.” An all-Russian competition for the project was announced, and the best one was selected and received first prize. To oversee the quality of construction, an authoritative commission of the most respected merchants was formed, which included N.A. Bugrov. As a result, the monumental building of the main fair house was erected in just one year and consecrated on June 15, 1890. For his active participation in the reconstruction of this beauty of Nizhny Novgorod, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov was awarded a high government award - the Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd degree. Nikolai Alexandrovich himself was content with little: his usual food was cabbage soup and porridge with black bread, he dressed in the usual merchant attire - a sheepskin coat, a frock coat, boots, and slept on the stove or blankets. He had dozens of steamships, steam mills, warehouses, piers, hundreds of acres of forest, entire villages. He built the famous night shelter for the homeless, a shelter for widows and orphans, and spared no expense on the construction of churches, hospitals and schools. Apparently, the whole life of the Bugromovs, from the founder of the company, Pyotr Yegorovich, to his grandson, Nikolai Alexandrovich, is inextricably linked with the Nizhny Novgorod fair. They invested a lot of effort into it, they multiplied their capital on it.

No less significantmerchants Rukavishnikovs . In 1812, merchant Grigory Rukavishnikov arrived from Balakhna to Nizhny Novgorod. The then unknown entrepreneur was not going to waste time on trifles and knew exactly why he was going to the capital of the province. He rode so that decades later his descendants would proudly bear the title of “steel kings.” Within five years, Gregory managed to firmly establish himself in the city. By 1817, Rukavishnikov already had three shops at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and wholesale trade in iron. In 1822, the merchant built his own steel plant. Grigory Rukavishnikov made sure that his son would continue his work with dignity and competence. At the age of 19, Mikhail Rukavishnikov became the head of his father’s plant. For over 40 years, Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov was engaged in the manufacture of high-quality steel, traded it and gave his business real scope. Rukavishnikov's steel was traded in St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Transcaucasia and was even supplied to Persia. Manufactory-adviser, merchant Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov, the first guild, became one of the most influential persons in the city, but did not lose his quickness of mind and desire for change. He was constantly aware of all the innovations and adopted the best experience. The only Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur, he subscribed to the magazine "Manufacturers and Trade" and the newspaper "Manufacture and Mining News". For his severity and rigidity in business, workers and office employees respectfully called Rukavishnikov the iron old man. Although they could well be called a “golden old man”. Mikhail Grigorievich amassed a huge fortune - after his death, he left his sons five million rubles each (incredible money at that time). Nizhny Novgorod should be grateful to Rukavishnikov for his extensive charitable activities. The merchant, who knew how to count money, spared no expense in helping those who really needed it. Rukavishnikov’s funds supported the Mariinsky Women’s Gymnasium and orphanages. One of Rukavishnikov’s sons, Ivan Mikhailovich, was a member of the board of trustees of the Kulibinsky Vocational School, a member of the board of the House of Diligence, and a member of the committee of the Widow’s House. In 1908, with donations from Ivan Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov, a stone house was built - a dormitory for boys leaving the Widow's House (according to the charter of the house, boys who were 15 years old were deprived of the right to live there). He also built a school where children of widows learned crafts. Together with his brothers and sisters, Ivan Mikhailovich built the House of Diligence (now this is the old building of Nizhpoligraf). The building housed more than 200 beggars, who, for pinching oakum and scratching bast, received a small daily wage, lodging for the night and food twice a day. Every year Ivan Mikhailovich allocated a thousand rubles in favor of poor Nizhny Novgorod brides. He donated to zemstvo barracks in the colony of the mentally ill in Lyakhov (until recently there was a “Rukavishnikov barracks” there) and for contagious patients in Dalniy Konstantinov. In 1900, he donated two thousand rubles for juvenile delinquents in the colonies. After the death of Ivan Mikhailovich, a will was left: about 200 thousand rubles - for churches, various charitable and educational institutions; 75 thousand rubles - to set up a shelter for boys at the Widow's House. One of the sons of M. G. Rukavishnikov - Vladimir Mikhailovich - was a juror of the City Duma. Since 1875, he maintained at his own expense a school for 40 boys and a chapel, spending up to 40 thousand rubles a year. The school recruited capable children from all over the country and provided them with full support: clothing, feeding, and education (general and musical). After school, the boys became singers in the choir of the Trinity Church, the money for the construction of which was also given by the Rukavishnikovs. The most talented students became soloists in the capital's opera houses. A graduate of this school, Pavel Koshits, sang at the Bolshoi Theater, and Alexei Maximovich Gorky’s cousin Alexander Kashirin served in the famous Rukavishnikov church choir. One of the most picturesque houses in Nizhny Novgorod (now it belongs to the historical and architectural museum-reserve), located on a slope, belonged to Sergei Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov. The house was intended only for the family of Sergei Mikhailovich; a tax was taken from the owner to the city treasury annually - 1933 rubles, the most significant amount in the city. In 1903, electricity was installed in it - the first of the private houses in Nizhny Novgorod. Sergei Mikhailovich also generously donated money to charity, mainly to the needs of monasteries and churches. After his death, a dinner for the poor for a thousand people was organized in the House of Diligence, and visitors to the shelter were given money. At the end of the 19th century, the Rukavishnikovs built a huge two-building bank building, the main facade facing Rozhdestvenskaya Street (now the Volga River Shipping Company is located there), and the other facing the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment. So the memory of the glorious family of Nizhny Novgorod merchants is worthily imprinted in the architecture of our city.

Another clan of merchants of the Nizhny Novgorod land -Bashkirovs . Their trading house “Emelyan Bashkirov and Sons” became widely known. Emelyan Bashkirov began his “business” by trading hay at bazaars. Having earned good money, he moved his family to Nizhny Novgorod and expanded the scale of the business - he began to trade in everyday goods outside his native province, traveling along the Volga to Astrakhan. A few years later, having increased his capital to 10 thousand rubles, he enrolled in the Nizhny Novgorod 1st Guild of Merchants and in 1871, together with his sons Nikol, Yakov and Matvey, opened his trading and flour milling enterprise - the Nizhny Novgorod trading house "Emelyan Bashkirov and Sons " The entrepreneur himself was illiterate: he could not sign the constituent documents, asking his friend, the Nizhny Novgorod 2nd guild merchant Pupkov, to do it for himself, but Bashkirov’s sons signed with their own hands. The main achievement of the Bashkirov trading house was that just a few years after its founding, it was awarded the right to constantly supply flour to the “main baker” of the country, entrepreneur Filippov, who had a bakery and the most popular bakery in Moscow on Tverskaya. In an effort to modernize flour milling production, the Bashkirovs equipped the mill in Blagoveshchenskaya Sloboda with a new powerful elevator, on the construction of which they spent almost 100 thousand rubles. They invested in the development of their cargo fleet, as well as in the expansion of retail networks through which they sold their own products. In 1891, after the death of their father, the Bashkirov brothers decided to divide the family capital, which at that time amounted to 9.5 million rubles, into three equal parts. Having received more than three million, they founded their own flour-grinding and trading companies: Nikolai - in Samara, Yakov and Matvey - in Nizhny Novgorod. The mill in Kunavinskaya Sloboda went to the middle brother, Yakov. The high quality of the Bashkirovs' flour (it was considered the best in the country) was repeatedly noted at exhibitions and fairs, including gold medals in Vienna, Paris and London. At the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in 1896, the Bashkirovs' flour received the highest award and entrepreneurs were granted the right to mark their products with the State Emblem. Over time, Yakov Bashkirov’s “Flour Milling Partnership” became a supplier to the Romanov imperial court, and he himself was awarded the title of nobility and the title “Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod.”

Following Bugrov, they established an 8-hour working day at their enterprises, provided workers with free space in barracks at mills, were the first in Nizhny Novgorod to introduce maternity benefits, and took care of increasing universal literacy and qualifications of workers. In 1912, the first “health insurance fund” appeared in Nizhny Novgorod, which was organized by Matvey Bashkirov at his mill. Children of deceased workers were given a one-time allowance of 30 rubles, for the funeral of family members of workers - 6 rubles, and women in labor - 4 rubles. When the Polytechnic Institute, evacuated from Warsaw, moved to Nizhny Novgorod, Matvey presented its rector with a check for half a million rubles - the most generous donation among Nizhny Novgorod merchants. Matvey Emelyanovich was considered the uncrowned king of Nizhny, but this man, who had enormous wealth and significant financial power, always tried to remain in the shadows. Yakov Bashkirov was also a generous philanthropist: he donated for the construction of churches, helped the city theater and a real school with funds, and built women's and men's vocational schools. The latter, located in Kunavin, later began to be called Bashkirovsky. In 1908, flour millers of the Volga region opened a school in Nizhny to train qualified specialists - grain workers, fitters, and millers - on the basis of the flour millers' school, which had long been successfully operating at one of Yakov Bashkirov's mills. There were only four such schools in Russia: in Nizhny, Odessa, Warsaw and Minsk. Now in the building of the former Bashkirovsky School (on Priokskaya Street, building No. 6) the Prioksky branch of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation is located. Almost 100 years later, the work of the Bashkirov flour millers in our city is continued by OJSC Nizhny Novgorod Flour Mill, the largest flour producer in the region, occupying the buildings of the former Bashkirov mill in Kunavin. They are listed at numbers 96, 96 A and 94 on the street. International and are among the oldest industrial buildings in Nizhny Novgorod.

Sirotkin, Dmitry Vasilyevich (1865-1946) - a major figure in the Old Believers, chairman of the council of the All-Russian Congresses of Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky Consent, chairman of the council of the Nizhny Novgorod community. One of the richest shipowners in Russia and a stockbroker. Born in the village of Ostapovo (Astapovo), near the village of Purekh, Balakhninsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province. His parents - Vasily Ivanovich and Vera Mikhailovna - were peasants of this village. Having started with the trade in “wood chips” and handicrafts, his father then started two small ships; on the ship “Volya” Dmitry Vasilyevich worked as a cook as a child. Having married in 1890 the daughter of the Kazan merchant-steamboat owner Kuzma Sidorovich Chetvergov, with the help of his father-in-law, in 1895 he bought his first tugboat. Then he acquired the ownership of the oil transportation business of S.M. Shibaev’s company (4 tugboats). In 1907, the “Commercial, Industrial and Shipping Partnership of Dmitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin” was formed with a capital of 1.5 million rubles (15 steamships, about 50 non-steam vessels, including more than 20 barges). In 1910, D.V. Sirotkin became the managing director of the large shipping company Volga. Since 1907 - Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Exchange Committee. Since 1908 - Chairman of the Council of Congresses of Shipowners of the Volga Basin. By 1913, Sirotkin became the chairman of the joint-stock shipping company "Along the Volga". To build the board building, he bought a plot of land on the corner of the Nizhny Novgorod Escarpment and Seminarskaya Square, and ordered the construction project to the Vesnin brothers. This building has been preserved; it is located on Verkhne-Volzhskaya embankment, 1, and now houses a medical institute. According to the project of the Vesnins (with the participation of S.A. Novikov), construction of a residential building began next to the government building in 1913, in which Sirotkin intended to “live for four years” and then donate it to the city to house the Art Museum (which is now located there) . Sirotkin was a significant church benefactor. He financed the construction of an Old Believer church in his native village in 1913, designed by the architects Vesnin brothers. He was one of the donors to the magazine "Church". The Nizhny Novgorod community existed on his donations; the prayer house where services were held also belonged to Sirotkin. Since 1899 - Chairman of the Council of All-Russian Congresses of Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. In 1908, advocating increasing the rights of the laity in the Church, he came into conflict with Bishop Innocent of Nizhny Novgorod and Kostroma. After a long struggle, a general meeting of community members on September 12, 1910 forced Sirotkin to resign as chairman. Following this, in 1910, Sirotkin resigned from the post of chairman of the Council of Old Believer Congresses. The delegates of the 10th Congress by a majority vote asked him to stay. Being the mayor of the city, he suggested that Gorky organize a daytime shelter for the unemployed, the famous “Pillars”. Money for the device was allocated by the Duma and the famous philanthropist N.A. Bugrov. In 1917, Sirotkin built an Old Believer almshouse with a temple in memory of his deceased mother on the street. Zhukovskaya (now Minin Street), where he maintained a church choir at his own expense. On March 29, 1913, Sirotkin was elected mayor of Nizhny Novgorod for a four-year term. Refused the salary of the mayor. Soon a major scandal began related to Sirotkin’s belonging to the Old Believers. In Nizhny Novgorod, on May 7, 1913, at the celebrations on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the royal dynasty, a prayer service was held in the presence of the tsar. Since New Believer priests were serving, the mayor pointedly did not get baptized. He was elected mayor for the second time in 1917-1920. The elections took place on February 7, 1917, and already in early September D.V. Sirotkin was replaced by the mayor of the Provisional Government. During his tenure as city mayor, sewerage construction began in Nizhny Novgorod, tram and electrical facilities were purchased into city ownership, and a city bakery was opened. D.V. Sirotkin took part in the opening of the People's University in 1915. In the fall of 1917, from the “Political Union of Old Believer Accords,” he became a member of the Provisional Council of the Republic (“Pre-Parliament”). In November 1917, he ran for deputy of the Constituent Assembly on the list of the Union of Old Believers, but was not elected. In 1918-1919 he was in the White South, mainly in Rostov-on-Don. He played an important role in local business circles. At the end of 1919 he left for France. In the 1920s, he settled in Yugoslavia with his family, where he lived on income from the operation of two small ships. Almost nothing is known about the last years of his life.

Became no less famousmerchants Blinovs . The “clan” of the Blinovs - Nizhny Novgorod merchants of the 19th - early 20th centuries - is known throughout Russia. And for good reason. Former serfs, the Blinovs, were able to become the largest entrepreneurs in the Russian state in a short time and prove themselves as successful industrialists and generous philanthropists.

Who would have thought that the famous Blinov merchant dynasty came from serfdom. However, back at the beginning of the 19th century, the Blinov peasant family from the Balakhninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province belonged to the Nizhny Novgorod prince Repnin. The first mention of the founder of the merchant dynasty in Nizhny Novgorod is found in the list of persons who were issued a certificate for the right to trade in 1846. The document reads: “Nizhny Novgorod province of Balakhninsky district to the peasant Fyodor Andreevich Blinov, freed from Prince Repnin.” Apparently, already in that distant time the former serf was a fairly wealthy man. He became one of the first shipowners to use steam traction in his enterprise instead of burlatsky webbing. It is known that in the 50s of the 19th century, the entrepreneur Blinov owned three steamships: the tugboat “Voevoda”, the capstan “Lev” and the runaway steamship “Golub”. A little later, Fedor Blinov acquired three more iron tugs: the owner’s “namesake” – “Blinov”, as well as “Assistant” and “Sever”. In addition, Blinov’s merchant fleet had a considerable number of iron and wooden barges. How could a man who until recently was a simple peasant be able to acquire such a huge fortune in a short period of time? Most researchers believe that Fyodor Andreevich made his main capital primarily from contracts related to the transportation and sale of salt. On Blinov's barges, salt was delivered from the lower reaches of the Volga and from Perm to Rybinsk and further along the Sheksna and Mariinsky system to St. Petersburg. By modern standards, the volume of transportation was significant. For example, in just one season in 1870, 350 thousand poods of Astrakhan sedimentary salt (eltonka) were exported on Blinov’s ships. Even at the Perm saltworks at that time, less salt was produced than was involved in the trade turnover of the Nizhny Novgorod merchant. In contracts for the transportation of salt and bread, Fedor Blinov was helped by his brother Nikolai. The third of the brothers, Aristarchus, was also involved in salt trading. The Balakhna peasant settled thoroughly in the “pocket of Russia”. Back in the early 50s of the 19th century, Fyodor Blinov built a complex of stone buildings on Sofronovskaya Square in Nizhny Novgorod. In addition to a residential building, there were shops here, as well as a horse-drawn mill for grinding salt. Blinov's straw mill, by the way, was the only one in the Nizhny Novgorod province at that time. It employed eight hundred workers and produced salt worth 42 thousand rubles annually. The only thing that somewhat hindered the merchant in his affairs was true faith in God - a faith according to which only the pre-Nikon postulates of Orthodoxy were respected. Being an Old Believer, Blinov often experienced harassment from the authorities. But no religious difficulties could prevent the Blinovs from becoming one of the richest people in the Nizhny Novgorod region. And they left a memory of themselves not at all because of their attachment to “Plyushkinsky” hoarding, as the Old Believer habit of all schismatic merchants to save their earned money was often interpreted. The name of the Blinov merchants forever associated itself with high-profile philanthropic affairs.

In the traditions of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants it was: “Profit is above all, but honor is above profit.” These traditions have deep roots. Since ancient times, it was customary for the best enterprising people to fulfill four main commandments: the first is to make good in righteous ways, the second is to use what you get wisely, the third is not to spare a share for those in need, the fourth is not to tempt fate in vain. Long before the famous “Domostroy,” Russian merchants put morality first and did not undertake any serious business without prayer. This is how it went for centuries.

In the 16th or 17th century, not to mention the earlier centuries, merchant names were famous throughout Rus', and among them Nizhny Novgorod. And how could the people of Nizhny Novgorod not become famous? One of the most ancient trade routes, the blue Volga itself, passed by their houses. And was it not from the Nizhny Novgorod piers that the most famous of the famous merchants, Afanasy Nikitin, once set sail with luggage and supplies, heading to fabulous India? And Nizhny Novgorod merchants traveled to all directions of the world. And, perhaps, the path to the transcendental Mangazeya was paved more than once.

Goods were sometimes lost, but honor was never lost. And it was not the merchant’s birth that raised him up—his beneficence. Everyone knew that a good merchant would never compromise his conscience: truth is bought, but untruth is stolen. If someone is dishonest, he will not escape shame, he will not escape worldly judgment, and where there is shame, there is ruin.

It is not without reason that whole generations began to look up to the merchant Kuzma Minin, who raised honest people to liberate Russia from a foreign enemy and from their traitors, as a moral example.

In the “Scribe Books”, among the townspeople of Nizhny Novgorod, the “best people” are called, who along the Volga “go up and down in ships and who trade in large quantities with all sorts of goods.” Semyon Zadorin, a merchant of the living room of the hundred, was well known, engaged in the trade of salt and fish.

The famous Stroganovs in Nizhny knew that the banks of the Oka were lined with salt barns.

Entrepreneurship and talent created fame for the Nizhny Novgorod merchants Olisov, Bolotov, Pushnikov, Shchepetilnikov, Olovyannikov. Favorable conditions, and sometimes, on the contrary, the most difficult obstacles accompanied the advancement of the most capable and persistent people from the people into the merchant class, into the first ranks of industrialists and financiers.

Especially many talents appeared among merchants in Russia during the post-reform era. The strongest turned out to be those from Old Believer families, where their upbringing was very harsh. They became the backbone of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants. If someone ever made it to the top, it was often not by chance. And as for the scoundrels, tyrants and burnt-outs from among the merchants, the same Ryabushinsky mentioned above spoke beautifully about them: “It’s true, there were such people, and quite a few, and I know the names of some, but I won’t reproach them. And besides, in many there was not only bad, but also good; who has intelligence, who has talent, who has scope, who has generosity. I will not shame or dishonor them or my hometown, but I will pray to God for those I know.”

PEREPLETCHIKOV Fedor Petrovich

In 1816, its member Fyodor Petrovich Perepletchikov was elected chairman of the City Duma, who played an outstanding role in the history of the development and improvement of Nizhny Novgorod. Perepletchikov came from a merchant family engaged in the rope industry, which was very common in Nizhny during the times of sailing navigation (at that time there were numerous rope spinning mills in the area of modern Korolenko, Novaya and Gorky streets). Fyodor Petrovich achieved great skill in the matter of inheritance. Perepletchikovsky ropes were valued throughout the Volga. But Fyodor Petrovich’s greatest fame was brought not by entrepreneurship, but by his activities in the field of city government. He was elected mayor three times and became famous as a prudent business executive and generous philanthropist.
Both contemporaries and descendants assessed his activities only in superlatives: the most generous philanthropist (city officials benefited from the income of Plebpletchikov’s capital even in 1918!); the most charming (the ability to convince listeners and be an interesting interlocutor aroused the envy of his contemporaries; Perepletchikov managed to charm even the All-Russian autocrat Nicholas I); the most far-sighted (it is to this mayor that Nizhny owes many buildings and initiatives); the most remarkable and famous (a city street was named after him, and on January 10 every year in the churches of Nizhny they served eternal remembrance for F.P. Perepletchikov).
At the time of his election, Perepletchikov was only 31 years old, but he was already respected in the city. No wonder he was entrusted with the city treasury with all financial records. As the main city financier, Fyodor Petrovich in 1812 took an active part in raising funds for the needs of the people's militia. He also showed an example of selfless care for refugees from Moscow, and tried with all his might to alleviate the needs of Muscovites. He sheltered some of them in his own home.

In 1816, when Perepletchikov was elected chairman of the City Duma, a terrible fire destroyed the Makaryevskaya Fair. Perepletchikov acted as a convinced supporter of the resumption of this fair not in its original place, near the walls of the monastery, but in Nizhny. He understood the benefits this would bring to the city, and did everything to make this transfer happen. And I was not mistaken in my calculations. Since 1817, Nizhny Novgorod began to grow rich, improve and expand before our eyes.
Information about outstanding citizens of Nizhny Novgorod from the merchant class is taken from various sources.
In 1831, F.P.’s two daughters died of cholera. Perepletchikova. He was deeply affected by the bitterness of his loss and decided to donate part of his fortune to help the poor. On January 15, 1832, the City Duma considered a letter from Perepletchikov, in which he donated the 8 buildings of the Nikolsky Market that he owned to the city, so that the income from the rental of these premises would go to the poor.

Another significant gift from Perepletchikov to the city was a stone house with two wings and a plot of land, bequeathed by him in favor of the City Duma (now Rozhdestvenskaya St., 6). In his will, Fyodor Petrovich indicated that after his death, the income from this house should go to the mayor for the benefit of “charitable institutions and poor residents of Nizhny Novgorod.” According to Perepletchikov’s will, the mayor had to personally manage this money, without reporting to anyone, since, as Fyodor Petrovich especially emphasized in his will, “honest, prudent and well-disposed people towards their fellow men are always elected to this position,” who will not use this income in for their own benefit, but will use it “to help the poor.”
In 1834-1836. the City Duma was again chaired by F.P. Perepletchikov, who held the position of mayor for the third time. This three-year period passed under the sign of two visits of Emperor Nicholas I, as a result of which Nizhny Novgorod was completely transformed.
For the third year now, the Tsar had been touring Russian cities and everywhere he gave impetus to the construction of roads and improvement. This happened in Nizhny Novgorod. By this time, it became completely clear that the city could not cope with the influx of cargo and visitors during the summer fair season. Carts with goods went from the Murom and Kazan tracts to the fair through the Kremlin. However, the gates of the Dmitrievskaya and Ivanovskaya towers turned out to be too small for their flow, which caused many hours of congestion. The streets were not suitable for such a number of carts. They were narrow and rather haphazardly built up with wooden manor-type houses.

Tsar Nicholas was knowledgeable in engineering and architecture, so all the shortcomings in the layout of Nizhny Novgorod immediately caught his eye. During his stay in Nizhny (October 10-12, 1834), he ordered a radical reconstruction of the city, giving architects and officials a number of detailed instructions. The mayor also received them.
Fyodor Petrovich was called to the Tsar's office (Nicholas stayed in the house of the military governor on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya). Before the sovereign lay the old plan of the city (1824), which, according to the royal will, had to change radically. The Emperor informed Perepletchikov and other representatives of local authorities in detail about his plans. The most important thing was to make exits for transport bypassing the Kremlin. Nikolai himself drew their direction on the plan. In total, the list of royal orders for the improvement of the city consisted of 33 points. The Emperor, in particular, ordered the purchase of all private houses in the Kremlin, the construction of a boulevard along its wall, the construction of the Upper Volga and Nizhnevolzhskaya embankments, a garden along the banks of the Volga, the straightening of the streets, the construction of new barracks and a number of other buildings.
Nikolai also personally discussed the issue of building barracks on the future Nizhnevolzhskaya embankment with the Chairman of the Duma, Perepletchikov. Their construction was supposed to finally rid the townspeople of the presence of soldiers (the Kremlin barracks could not accommodate all the military personnel of the garrison). The City Duma collected funds for construction by introducing a special tax on the “real estate” of Nizhny Novgorod residents.

Other work on the improvement of the city was carried out at public expense. To finance them, on January 5, 1836, a tax was introduced on ships bringing goods to the fair. However, the townspeople had to bear high costs of moving their own houses to new locations due to the redevelopment of streets. But here too the state came to their aid. The so-called public charity order (the provincial institution in charge of the “social sphere” and at the same time having the right to conduct credit and financial activities) was placed in the Nizhny Novgorod order of public charity. "auxiliary capital". In 1836, the City Duma considered the issue of borrowing from it to provide loans to residents for the construction of houses.
On August 15-17, 1836, Nicholas I visited Nizhny Novgorod again. He checked the progress of work and gave another 54 instructions for the improvement of the city.
On August 16, a ceremonial reception for city officials and the nobility took place at the Main Fair House. There, the emperor especially singled out the mayor F.P. Perepletchikov, addressing him as a representative of Nizhny Novgorod merchants, “fellow citizens of the most famous of this class, Kozma Minin.”
It must be said that Nicholas the First had deep respect for the memory of the savior of Moscow and even wanted to find out if there were any of his descendants left in Nizhny. Perepletchikov took this desire of the sovereign to heart and began to explore Minin’s family tree. Interest in Minin’s personality gave impetus to another charitable initiative of Perepletchikov. In 1836, the City Duma considered the case “about the construction in Nizhny Novgorod of a house called Mininsky for charity for poor citizens and retired honored soldiers.” Perepletchikov gave 1,000 rubles of personal money for this and collected another 4,500 rubles from other donors. But this initiative was realized only 30 years later.

BLINOV Fedor Andreevich, Aristarkh Andreevich, Nikolai Andreevich

One of the prominent representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod merchant elite was Fyodor Blinov. He started out trading bread and salt. He acquired six steamers (“Lion”, “Dove”, “Voevoda”, “Blinov”, “Assistant”, “North”). With their help, the resourceful merchant transported grain cargoes along the Volga, and also delivered salt from Astrakhan and Perm to Rybinsk (only Astrakhan sedimentary salt - “Eltonka” - up to 350 thousand poods per season). Blinov grinded salt in Nizhny Novgorod at a horse-drawn mill, which he built on Sofronovskaya Square (now Markin Square).
The salt business was very profitable, but it was fraught with many dangerous temptations. In 1869, for participating “thoughtlessly” in the waste of government salt and for violating the established rules for maintaining trade books, Blinov was sentenced to arrest in prison for seven days and compensation for government damage in the amount of 150,096 rubles 70 kopecks. After that, he was engaged only in the grain business. Together with his younger brothers Aristarkh and Nikolai, Fyodor Andreevich owned mills in the Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan provinces, traded in grain, flour and cereals in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Blinov was a generous benefactor and did a lot for the city. At his own expense, he paved Sofronovskaya Square and the Assumption Congress to the Oka River (1861), and made a large donation for the creation of the Nizhny Novgorod City Public Bank. He gave a thousand rubles for the construction of a temporary hospital for cholera patients (1872), 6 thousand rubles for the establishment of craft classes at the First Children's Shelter (1874), 5 thousand for the construction of a laundry in the Second Children's Shelter (1876) , 3 thousand rubles - for the renovation of orphanage buildings (1877). Finally, with his brothers Aristarkh and Nikolai, he donated a gigantic sum of 125 thousand rubles for the installation of a water supply system in Nizhny Novgorod (1878).
In 1871, the City Duma formed a special commission that prepared a plan for the construction of a new water supply system and cost estimates. It turned out that no more than 450 thousand rubles would be required. Tenders were then announced to carry out this work. They were won by the English company Malisson, which undertook to complete the project for 417 thousand.

To pay the contractor, the Duma prepared to take out a loan of 450 thousand rubles at 5% per annum for a period of 50 years. To pay it off, it was planned to increase the tax on homeowners. It was here that the Nizhny Novgorod Duma received a statement from the brothers Fyodor, Aristarkh and Nikolai Blinov, merchants A.P. and N.A. Bugrovykh and merchant U.S. Kurbatova. To save the city from the loan, and homeowners from the increase in taxes, they donated 250 thousand of their personal money (Blinovs - 125 thousand, Bugrovs - 75 thousand, Kurbatov - 50 thousand). At the same time, the benefactors set the condition: “The use of water from the new water supply system should be free for all classes of Nizhny Novgorod forever.”

Aristarkh Andreevich and Nikolai Andreevich Blinov owned flour mills and cereal factories in the Volga region. Rozhdestvenskaya Street in Nizhny is still decorated with the arcade building built by the Blinovs.

BUGROV Petr Egorovich, Alexander Petrovich and Nikolai Alexandrovich

The founder of the most famous merchant dynasty in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Peter Egorovich Bugrov, was noticed by Vladimir Ivanovich Dal. He came to admire the resourcefulness and enterprise of an appanage peasant from the village of Popovo, Semenovsky district. In an essay about him, the writer reports how, through honest work and intelligence, Petrukha the balalaika player achieved wealth and turned from a stocky barge hauler into the largest grain merchant, setting up mills on the Linda River. In addition, Bugrov contracted the construction of government buildings and completed orders in the shortest possible time. At the Lower City Fair, bridges across canals were built under his supervision. No one managed to strengthen the slope sliding into the Volga near the Kremlin until the savvy contractor Bugrov took up the task. When, during the Crimean War, Nizhny Novgorod residents assembled a militia from recruits, Bugrov equipped a convoy for it. In the book by A.V. Sedov “The Nizhny Novgorod Feat of V.I. Dahl” (Nizhny Novgorod, 1993) the following review of the writer about Bugrov is given, included by Dahl in a letter to the Minister of Destinies: “Your Excellency! I dare to introduce the most wonderful man on the entire Nizhny family estate, Pyotr Egorovich Bugrov. This is one of those smart minds who, from a crowbar hooker, achieved the title of the first contractor in Nizhny.”

Pyotr Yegorovich's grandson Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov managed to wisely manage the millions of dollars of capital acquired by his grandfather and father, maximizing them. This was already an all-powerful master who held the fates of many people in his hands and who was called the uncrowned king of Nizhny Novgorod. Thanks to this powerful man, production arose and developed, trade flourished, and unprecedented construction took place. And in the calm of women in Ker, in the Old Believer hermitages, they prayed to him as a benefactor and patron.

In M. Gorky's description, the younger Bugrov appears as a rather gloomy character. Even Bugrov’s appearance makes a repulsive impression.

“I often met this man on the shopping streets of the city: big, heavy, in a long frock coat, similar to a jacket, in brightly polished boots and in a cloth cap, he walked with a heavy gait, with his hands in his pockets, he walked to meet people, as if he didn’t see them, and they gave way to him not only with respect, but almost with fear.”

The fact that Bugrov did not forget about his conscience, that he tried to observe the code of honor verified over centuries, and that his moral obligations were dear to him, has been preserved in both documents and legends. After the fire in 1853, when the theater on Bolshaya Pecherka burned down, Nikolai Alexandrovich’s grandfather rented out his apartment building on Blagoveshchenskaya Square to the theater. Noisy performances, where, as the younger Bugrov believed, “naked women jump over naked men,” did not fit in with the moral principles of the devout Old Believer, and he turned to the city duma with a request to sell him his grandfather’s house. The Duma respected the request of the venerable entrepreneur. Having purchased the building, Bugrov donated it to the Duma free of charge, setting only the condition that “in future, no theater or entertainment establishment will ever be allowed to be established in this building.”

Nikolai Alexandrovich himself, with enormous capital, was content with little; He didn’t drink or smoke alcoholic drinks, his usual food was cabbage soup and porridge with black bread, he dressed simply - a sheepskin coat, a frock coat, boots...

And he had dozens of steamships, steam mills, warehouses, piers, hundreds of acres of forest, entire villages. In 1896, Bugrov received the right to supply grain to the entire Russian army. It had representative offices in the twenty largest cities of Russia. Bugrov's partnership processed 4,600 pounds of grain per day in 1908.

At the stock exchange, where the eminent Nizhny Novgorod merchants discussed transactions, arranging ritual tea parties in a separate room, Bugrov was invariably revered as the main and foremost. Here each table was nicknamed with a meaning: “insurance”, “supply”, “oil”, “trusted table”, “millionth”. Naturally, according to custom, Bugrov, who came to the stock exchange at noon, sat down at the “millionth” table along with the richest merchants.

And in the Duma, and at the stock exchange, and at the fair, and in commercial offices, the first word was with Bugrov. He conducted his affairs with brilliance, skill and efficiency. Knowing his worth, he did not lose his dignity when meeting with the tsar, and addressed Finance Minister Witte, as well as the Nizhny Novgorod governor Baranov, on a first-name basis.

Nizhny Novgorod merchants had a tradition of so-called “alms days,” during which each of the moneybags was obliged to give generous alms to the poor, no matter how many of them came to the gate. Good entrepreneurs did not want to hear the offensive saying about themselves: “Minin’s beard, but his conscience is clay.” They tried not only to be known, but also to be philanthropists. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov did not skimp on alms.

On the days of memory of his illustrious ancestor, he organized “funeral tables”. They were placed on Gorodets Square, stocked with bread and jugs of kvass. Poor brethren from all over the area came here, receiving free food and silver ten-kopeck pieces. It was Bugrov who built the famous shelter for the homeless, a shelter for widows and orphans, and spared no expense in the construction of churches, hospitals and schools. The foundations of Bugrovsky buildings are still strong, and its houses themselves still serve people flawlessly.

Bugrov acquired a lot and gave a lot away. Having lived for more than seventy years (1837-1911), he proved by his deeds how active, enterprising, prudent, and at the same time magnanimous and generous a Russian person can be.

When Nikolai Alexandrovich was buried, the whole city followed the coffin. The steamships hummed incessantly on the spring Volga, paying their last respects to the owner. In a newspaper obituary he was called first of all a “major philanthropist” and then a “representative of the grain business.”

Shamshurin V.A. Return to Nizhny Novgorod. Historical studies (2009):

Father and son Bugrov built the famous Nochlezhny House for the city. The initiator of its creation, Alexander Petrovich, was not destined to see the doors of this institution open. In May 1883 he passed away. The building was ready by October 10, 1883. The son of the deceased, Nikolai Alexandrovich, solemnly transferred the house into city ownership, pledging to maintain it at his own expense in memory of his father. There was a memorial plaque on the wall: “A.P. Night Shelter.” Bugrova".

450 men and 45 women could receive shelter there. However, they were not asked for any documents. They were allowed here in the evening and only for the night. During the day, the doors of the shelter were closed to restore order. Drunk people were not accepted into the shelter. It was forbidden to take alcohol with you, smoke or sing songs (this could disturb the sleep of others). The guards kept order.
In 1887, the city acquired another large charitable institution. This was the so-called "Widow's House". It was built at their own expense and handed over to the city by Nikolai Bugrov and the brothers Aristarkh and Nikolai Blinov.

The building was located on city land near the Holy Cross Monastery (now Lyadova Square, 2). On October 23, 1887, the Duma approved the charter of the Widow's House. It opened on October 30. It provided free one- or two-room apartments to widows with children. The kitchens were shared. There was a bathhouse, a laundry, a pharmacy and an outpatient clinic with a hospital room for two departments: adults and children. There was a doctor, a paramedic and a nurse in the hospital.
Since 1888, a teacher and a law teacher taught the children. The staff of the Widow's House also included a caretaker, a warder, a doorman, bellhops, a bathhouse attendant, two stokers and five watchmen. The City Duma gave them all their salaries. She also paid all other expenses. The money for this was allocated in advance by N.A. Bugrov and Blinov.
The Blinovs donated 75 thousand rubles, placing them in the city Nikolaev bank. Interest from this huge capital was allocated to the needs of the Widow's House. In turn, N.A. Bugrov donated his houses to the city on the corner of Alekseevskaya Street and Gruzinsky Lane. The city leased them to the military department, which erected a barracks building there (the so-called “Georgian barracks”). Rental income also contributed to the maintenance of the Widow's House.

Another manifestation of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov’s civic position was the new building of the City Duma, which he donated to the city. The house of P.E. previously stood on this site. Bugrov, founder of the famous merchant dynasty. Then the Bugrovs sold it, and a theater was located there. Then the house was transferred to the Alexander Noble Bank for debts. Nikolai Bugrov bought it and in 1897 donated it to the city, with the condition, however, that the establishment of a theater or entertainment establishment in general should never be allowed in it, and the proceeds should be distributed to the poor.
They began to repair the house, but in 1898 it burned down. And according to the project of V.P. Zeidler here in 1901-1904. A completely new building was erected.

Moreover, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov paid over 70% of construction costs. On April 18, 1904, the grand opening of the “Bugrovsky Charity Building” took place (now Minin and Pozharsky Square, no. 1). It should be noted that its interior decoration was done using the exquisite decoration of the Imperial Pavilion of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896, donated by the Tsar to Nizhny Novgorod. Now these luxurious apartments house the City Council, which has moved to a new location. Some of the premises were rented out for shops. The Duma spent the income, as Bugrov wished, on charitable purposes.

RUKAVISHNIKOVS

Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov was distinguished by the same strong nature that Bugrov had. Continuing the path of his father, who back in 1817 opened three shops at the Nizhny Novgorod fair and began selling iron, he managed to give the business real scope. The chimneys of his metallurgical plant did not stop smoking over Kunavin. Rukavishnikov was engaged in the production of excellent steel.

In the “Gazette on the state of factories and plants in the Nizhny Novgorod province for 1843” it was noted: steel “at this plant ... is produced up to 50,000 pounds. A total of 90,500 rubles. silver." The steel was sold at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and to Persia.

Manufacturer-adviser, merchant Mikhail Grigorievich Rukavishnikov, the first guild, becomes one of the most influential persons in the city. The only Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur, he subscribes to the magazine “Manu Invoices and Trade” and the newspaper “Manufactory and Mining News”, adopting the best experience. Business came first for him, he could not stand laxity and laziness, he controlled himself, and by the end of his life he was nicknamed the “iron old man.”

Rukavishnikov’s wealth increased every year, and he donated a significant share of it to charity. A large sum was allocated by him to the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, where he was a member of the board of trustees. Together with local historian Gatsisky, composer Balakirev, artist and photographer Karelin, entering the “Brotherhood of Cyril and Methodius”, Rukavishnikov provided assistance to children from low-income families. And the brotherhood itself was created precisely in order to take on the costs of maintaining poor students of the gymnasium, supply them with clothes and books, and contribute money for education.

“I sacrifice and care” - these words could become the motto of the entire Rukavishnikov family. The descendants continued the charitable activities of the “iron old man.” One of his sons, Ivan Mikhailovich, together with his brothers and sisters, built the famous House of Diligence on Varvarka in Nizhny (now this is the old building of Nizhpoligraf), annually donated a thousand rubles in favor of poor Nizhny Novgorod brides, did not refuse to help the zemstvo, took care of Kulibinsky vocational school.

Another of the sons, Vladimir Mikhailovich, was famous for maintaining a boys’ choir at his own expense; some of its students became soloists in the capital’s opera houses. The life of Mitrofan Mikhailovich, an honorary member of the Red Cross Society, who built a gymnasium dormitory on Gruzinsky Lane and a surgical hospital (now one of the buildings of the gerontological center), was decorated with good deeds.

So it turns out that the Rukavishnikovs took care of all the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, leaving visible material evidence of their affection and love for the city. But their most magnificent gift is a unique palace on the Escarpment, which belonged to Sergei Mikhailovich and was built by him in the spring of 1877. There is in the beauty, splendor and harmony of this building the same spirituality that we find in the works of the best architects, whose aspirations are not everyday life, but eternity. This was well captured and conveyed in heartfelt prose by the son of the owner of a luxurious palace, writer Ivan Sergeevich Rukavishnikov.

“Early in spring, the scaffolding surrounding the palace was felled. And powerful, heavy and slender, it appeared to the spring-flooded Volga River... They built it so that for many, many years there would be no house equal to that in the city. No one has enough audacity or capital... Everything in that palace is without deception. Where you see marble, it is real marble and an inch thick, not like they cut it in the foreign style now, like cardboard sheets. The eye sees a stone column, believe it, don’t try it with your hand - it won’t ring, it’s not empty. And believe in the capital of the column too: bronze, not gilded cardboard. And in the bronze of that copper and tin there is as much as is said in the old lists. And if in a hundred years there is a war in that city, and a cast-iron cannonball hits that slender arch over there, and the cannonball knocks off the grinning face of the old satyr, no one’s eye will see either rotten beams or rusty crutches in that place. And he will see the correct circular masonry, and the moderately calcined brick will crumble earlier than the layer of correct cement will give way...”

Ivan Sergeevich wrote about the strength of a skillful creation, at the same time revealing the flaws of the closed, ossified merchant life, from which he renounced and with which he broke, throwing down, like a glove, a reproach to his past in the novel “The Cursed Family.” God will be his judge. But it is impossible not to connect this act, generated by denial, with another, prompted by the high spirit of the soul and, of course, corresponding to the family tradition of doing good. Together with his brother Mitrofan Sergeevich, Ivan Sergeevich, after the devastating year of 1977, set about creating a folk museum in the family mansion. More than seventy works of art, mostly paintings, were donated to the city by the Rukavishnikovs even before the revolution, sparing no expense with their collections. These works became the basis of the museum.

It seemed that Russia was perishing in the fire of civil war, churches were collapsing, libraries were burning - and nothing could be saved. But still there were people who knew: preserving spiritual wealth means preserving their homeland. And among these selfless people, some of the most active were the descendants of the old merchant family that emerged from the Balakhna lower classes. By the way, it will be said that Mitrofan Sergeevich’s son Iulian and grandson Alexander are famous sculptors; in 1987, a monument to the glorious Russian pilot Pyotr Nikolaevich Nesterov was erected in our city by the father and son Rukavishnikov.

BASHKIROV Emelyan Grigorievich, Yakov Emelyanovich, Matvey Emelyanovich,
Nikolay Emelyanovich

It was the custom of every competent Nizhny Novgorod merchant to carry out any successful transaction not only to celebrate in the tavern, but also to light a candle in the church and give it to the poor. Entrepreneurs invested a lot of money in the construction of churches.

In Nizhny Novgorod there were certain days when assistance to the poor was mandatory. For example, this day was the closing day of the fair. Having taken part in the procession and prayer service, the merchants, as usual, returned to their shops, having prepared generous alms. Nizhny Novgorod newspapers published the names of those who donated to orphanages, helped fire victims, and poor families. And lists of donors appeared constantly. But if someone was stingy, the rumor did not spare him.

A wealthy steamboat operator and flour miller, the founder of the trading house “Emelyan Bashkirov and his sons” was incredibly stingy and became an anecdotal figure. They say that Emelyan Grigorievich was returning from his mill to the upper part of the city. A cab was driving along the exit.

- Sit down, your lordship, I’ll take you there. I'll take it inexpensively - ten kopecks.

- Fear God! I overcharged him. Give me a nickel.

They move around and argue and bargain. Finally, the cab driver gives in.

- Well, for your sake, your lordship, I agree. Sit down for a nickel and let's go.

- No, brother. Now I won’t sit down. Look, while talking to you, I didn’t even notice how I walked halfway up the mountain.

Another case. Bashkirov was awarded the Eagle sign for the high quality of flour. The employees gathered to congratulate Emelyan Grigorievich, hoping for a treat.

- Why did you come? - asks Bashkirov.

– We would like to congratulate you on the royal favor.

Emelyan Grigorievich wrinkled his brow, reached into his pocket, and took out his wallet.

I fumbled around in it for a long time. Finally, he pulled out a two-kopeck piece and handed it over.

- Here you go. Yes, look, don't drink it.

Adrianov Yu.A., Shamshurin V.A. Old Nizhny: Historical and literary essays. (1994)

After the death of the elder Bashkirov in 1891, all his millions of capital passed to his sons. The sons turned out to be worthy successors. Nizhny Novgorod residents pronounced the names of Yakov and Matvey Bashkirov with respect. Their fame spread throughout Russia. Bashkirov-milled flour was considered the best, it was asked for in all parts of the province, and it became famous abroad. For days on end, grain carts continuously stretched from the Nizhny Novgorod piers to the mills. At the mill alone, over 12,000 pounds of grain were ground daily. The enterprise of Matvey Emelyanovich was located near the Romodanovsky station, Yakov Emelyanovich - in Kunavin.

The Bashkirovs knew a lot about work. No wonder Yakov Emelyanovich declared that his family came from barge haulers. And Yakov Emelyanovich also boasted that the cunning character in Gorky’s novel “Foma Gordeev” Mayakin is exactly like himself:

- Mayakin? It's me! It's been written off from me, look how smart I am.

Yakov Emelyanovich behaved independently, proudly, did not grovel before dignitaries, but was withdrawn and overly arrogant. And yet, despite human weaknesses, the Bashkirovs were strong, real masters. The mills they built still stand in Nizhny Novgorod. And what benefits they bring!

An honest business was never done for the sake of profit alone. Intelligence, agility, risk - and even with daring, and even with enthusiasm - were approved on the Volga. There was only no praise for those who cheated beyond measure, cheated, and stole. It is known that Fyodor Blinov’s father, like the Bashkirovs, a millionaire flour miller, gave his son, who had served time in prison for fraud with salt, a pair of cast-iron galoshes. He had to wear them for half an hour on each anniversary of the trial. Like, don’t lose your merchant’s honor, don’t lose your dignity.

Volga entrepreneurs loved to compete most of all in innovations. Thus, the well-known Alexander Alfonsovich Zeveke was the first to build an American-type steamship with a shallow draft in Nizhny Novgorod. His ship “Amazon” appeared on the Volga during the navigation of 1882, striking everyone with its huge wheels behind the stern. And then a whole series of such ships appeared.

The skillful entrepreneur Markel Aleksandrovich Degtyarev was famous on the Volga, and the thorough Mikhail Ivanovich Shipov was held in high esteem. The Volga residents knew well the plant of Ustin Savvich Kurbatov, where ships were assembled, and his company, which operated towing and passenger ships with a distinctive sign - a white stripe on the pipes.

MOROZOV Savva Timofeevich

It is impossible to separate from the Nizhny Novgorod merchants such a brilliant figure as Savva Timofeevich Morozov, who for several years headed the fair committee and, on behalf of the commercial and industrial class of Russia, presented bread and salt to the Emperor in 1896. The influence of the European-educated, intelligent and energetic committee chairman on the business community was truly enormous.

One characteristic incident stuck in the memory of Nizhny Novgorod residents. Finance Minister Witte refused the fair committee's request to increase the terms of loans from the state bank. The only entrepreneur who was not embarrassed by the refusal was the chairman of the committee himself. As presented by M. Gorky, who was present at the committee meeting, Morozov’s speech boiled down to the following:

– We care a lot about bread, but little about iron, and now the state must be built on iron beams... Our straw kingdom is not tenable... When officials talk about the state of the factory business, about the situation of the workers, you all know what it is - "entombment..."

He suggested sending a sharp telegram to the minister. The next day a response was received: Witte agreed with the committee’s arguments and granted the petition.

Having become known as a business man, Savva Timofeevich entered another world - the world of art. He loved theater and painting, read entire chapters from “Eugene Onegin” by heart, admiring the genius of Pushkin, and knew the works of Balmont and Bryusov well. Morozov was haunted by the idea of Europeanization of Russia, which, in his opinion, could only be realized through revolution. At the same time, he never doubted the talent of his people and financially supported bright talents. The example of philanthropy of such major authorities in the business world as Savva Timofeevich Morozov and Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, who created all the conditions for the flourishing of the talent of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, captivated many of the younger generation of entrepreneurs. This corresponded not only to new trends, but also to the age-old folk wisdom about the superiority of spiritual wealth over material wealth: “The soul is the measure of everything.”

SIROTKIN Dmitry Vasilievich

In the conditions of rethinking traditions, at a turning point in the rapid development of capitalism, it was not easy to become such a large-scale and popular figure among Nizhny Novgorod citizens of a new formation, as the millionaire Dmitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin seems to us now. This personality was original, and Sirotkin’s whimsical fate was also unique.

...The Great Patriotic War was coming to an end. The battles were already taking place outside the borders of our Motherland. In the fall of 1944, Marshal Tolbukhin's troops reached the Danube, intending to liberate Belgrade. But first it was necessary to cross the Danube. The wide river was depressingly deserted - not a boat anywhere. And there was an urgent need to cross. Regimental commanders puzzled over this task.

Early in the morning, the sentries saw a boat through a foggy veil on the river. She silently glided towards the shore, overgrown with dense bushes. Fearing to break the silence, the fighters called out to the boatman only at the moment when he left the boat and began to make his way through the thickets. He was a strong, dignified old man with a wide, clean forehead and a short white beard. He had an impressive appearance, his gestures were decisive and authoritative.

“Take me to the commander,” he said in Russian and looked with such a firm, confident look that the experienced soldiers did not dare to disobey.

He was brought to the command post. He wasted no time and suggested to the general:

- I know you need a crossing. I have my own flotilla on the Danube: boats, tugs, barges. All this is not far from here, in a secluded place. You can use it.

- Who are you? - the general was amazed, unable to believe the unexpected help.

– Local entrepreneur. And in the past - the last Nizhny Novgorod mayor, Dmitry Sirotkin.

This is such an amazing story. And it was told by soldiers who returned from the front. Looks like a legend. But legends are not born out of the blue.

And therefore there is a reason to turn to the memories of one of the Volga residents - Ivan Aleksandrovich Shubin, who met with Sirotkin at the beginning of the century.

“I saw Sirotkin without knowing him at all. At his invitation I came to the office... He was of average height, significantly shorter than me. Inner strength attracted attention. He was impulsively restrained, and if he lost his temper, then with some impetuosity he would allow himself a few harsh words and only quickly pull himself together again. There was not so much severity in him as efficiency. His eyes were gray and lively. Hands are confident, small, light, fast gait. He loved music very much and attended concerts. He organized many concerts himself and did a lot for the public who could pay. At the Lower Bazaar he organized literary and musical meetings for the poor. He selected the repertoire himself, the artistic repertoire was compiled by the artist Yakovleva, and the dramatic repertoire was composed by Volkov and Kapralov. They gathered every holiday, and I personally had to attend, they always listened with great attention and interest. They read our classics, poems, and the music was mainly by Russian composers...”

It is probably already possible to form a general idea of a person whose spiritual interests are fully consistent with the act committed by Sirotkin at the end of his life.

He came from an Old Believer family. His father Vasily Ivanovich was a peasant in the village of Ostapovo, Purekhovsky volost, Balakhninsky district - this is next to the former patrimonial estate of the unforgettable Prince Pozharsky.

Vasily Ivanovich traded in wood chips, transported them on ordered barks down the Volga - to Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan, and sold them in bulk. Things were going briskly. In a matter of years, the resourceful peasant became rich and became the owner of the tugboat Volya. On Volya, after graduating from primary school, the younger Sirotkii worked from a young age - as a cook, sailor, waterman, helmsman. The time comes when Dmitry Vasilyevich himself takes the helm of his ship, also named “Volya”. This ship was already more powerful than my father’s, with an iron hull and a steam engine, designed by the mechanic Kalashnikov, famous throughout the Volga. It must be said that the design of the Volya machine was soon awarded a prize at the All-Russian exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. The ambitious Sirotkin achieved his first great success - his ship was recognized as one of the best on the river.

Perseverance, intensive self-education, passion for engineering and design, a thirst to improve every business - all this distinguished Sirotkin among entrepreneurs. Taking on the task of transporting oil along the Volga, he created his own type of ships: according to Sirotkin’s drawings, the oil-loading metal barge “Marfa Posadnitsa” was built in 1907. The Nobel partnership, which competed with Sirotkin’s company, urgently began building ships of this type.

Sirotkin was recognized as the leader among shipowners. He was elected chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Imperial Shipping Society, head of the coordinating committee of all exchanges in the Volga region, chairman of the permanent council of congresses of shipowners of the Volga basin.

Knowing how to work with full dedication, he naturally could not stand any laxity, disorder, or dishonesty. Out of spite, someone composed a biting ditty about him:

Like on the Volga, on the river

Mitrius has everything in his hand.

With his left hand he will beckon,

The right hefty vein is pulling.

Was this really the case? The same Shubin recalls Sirotkin: “He knew how to select people and work with them. But, without interfering with his work, Sirotkin, unlike Bugrov, was not based on personal charity, but attracted the public, organized city guardianship for the poor... He called people not by “you”, but by “you”. He had libraries compiled on barges... Sirotkin organized insurance for workers against unfortunate events, many of the merchants had a negative attitude towards this. In addition, he did the following thing: he appointed a representative from the workers to the council of merchant congresses.”

In the spring of 1910, the Volga Commercial, Industrial and Shipping Company was created in Nizhny Novgorod. The managing director was the merchant of the 1st Guild of Commerce, Advisor Sirotkin, in whose hands enormous funds were concentrated at that time. Volga's fixed capital was increased to 10 million rubles. And the society's vessels appeared on the Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei and Danube. Near the village of Bor, an active entrepreneur is building a large plant for the production of motor ships. This plant still operates under the name “Motor Ship”.

1913 Nizhny Novgorod residents held elections for a new city mayor. Of several candidates, Sirotkin was preferred.

“I promise to serve the city not for honors, but according to my conscience,” Dmitry Vasilyevich said when taking office. He asked to transfer his salary to the city budget. And he shared his plans: to build a permanent bridge across the Oka, improve the outskirts, and begin electrification work.

But these plans were not destined to come true. A long war with Germany began. And it was no longer peaceful concerns that burdened the city’s head. However, he can be credited with the fact that under his leadership the concession tram was purchased by the council, the Peasant Land Bank was built, and the transition to universal primary education was carried out.

There are many good deeds to the credit of Sirotkin, who is undoubtedly an exceptional person. But the bureaucrats were dissatisfied with Sirotkin, whom he prevented from being arbitrary in the distribution of military orders, looking after the interests of entrepreneurs.

The head of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial gendarme department, Colonel Mazurin, reported on October 9, 1915 to the director of the police department that the mayor Sirotkin “was known only as a good and clever businessman, who did not forget his personal self and who made up quite a substantial fortune out of nothing.” Already from this phrase it is clear that the gendarme, to put it mildly, is being dishonest.

Dmitry Vasilyevich recognized the beneficial nature of the February Revolution, began wearing a red bow on his frock coat and headed the city executive committee of the Provisional Government. Like many active people, it probably seemed to him that Russia, freed from the shackles of autocracy, would move even faster along the path of progress. However, optimism soon gave way to anxiety. The time has come for unrest and chaos. And, no longer hoping for the best, foreseeing inevitable cataclysms, Sirotkin decides to go abroad, since he had his own ships on the Danube.

He left Nizhny, leaving a good memory of himself. His beautiful mansion on the Volga Escarpment, created by the talented architects the Vesnin brothers in 1916, now houses an art museum. In addition, the city owes Sirotkin unique collections of porcelain, shawls and scarves, Russian folk costume, and gold embroidery. In emigration, he had to learn that the works of art he left in his homeland were carefully preserved, becoming the property of the people of Nizhny Novgorod, and this pleased him. He lived a great life, passing away in the early fifties. They say that after the war he wanted to return to Russia, but did not receive permission.

It is difficult to imagine what a seedy city Nizhny would look like, how meager its history would be, if the merchants had not participated in its formation. But is it really only Nizhny that we’re talking about!

One cannot but agree with the deep thought of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin that “in the half-century preceding the revolution, the Russian merchants played a leading role in the everyday life of the entire country.” But Shalyapin didn’t know this when his talent reached unprecedented greatness thanks to merchant patronage. Reflecting on a domestic merchant who started his business by peddling a simple home-made friend, Fyodor Ivanovich says about him: “... He eats tripe in a cheap tavern, drinks tea and black bread as a bite. He gets cold and cold, but he is always cheerful, does not complain and hopes for the future. He is not embarrassed by what goods he has to trade, trading in different ones. Today with icons, tomorrow with stockings, the day after tomorrow with amber, or even little books. Thus he becomes an "economist". And there, lo and behold, he already has a shop or a factory. And then, guess what, he’s already a merchant of the 1st guild. Wait - his eldest son is the first to buy a Gauguin, the first to buy a Picasso, the first to bring a Matisse to Moscow. And we, the enlightened ones, look with disgusting mouths agape at all the Matisses, Manets and Renoirs that we have not yet understood and say nasally and critically: “Tyrant...” Meanwhile, the tyrants have quietly accumulated wonderful treasures of art, created galleries, museums, first-class theaters, they set up hospitals and shelters...” And here’s something else that the world-famous singer credits to the merchants: they “defeated poverty and obscurity, the violent discord of official uniforms and the inflated swagger of cheap, lisping and burring aristocracy.”

No matter what obstacles arose, the Nizhny Novgorod merchants remembered the Old Testament commandment - to do good for the fatherland - and believed that the costs of good deeds would eventually pay off a hundredfold. And it was not mistaken: the good names of venerable entrepreneurs are now resurrected in memory and they are pronounced along with the names of famous public figures and scientists, architects and artists.

Today I would like to talk about the middle, updated part of Rozhdestvenskaya Street, which has preserved the merchant flavor of Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, despite the fact that Rozhdestvenskaya is not a central street, there are many wonderful restaurants and cafes on it that brighten up the lives of Nizhny Novgorod residents and tourists.

The settlement of the Oka bank on the site of modern Rozhdestvenskaya Street began literally from the founding of the city. Construction progressed rather slowly. It is documented that already in the 14th century this territory was part of the border of wood-earth fortifications known as the Small Ostrog. Their border ran along the line of modern Sergievskaya Street

But to be completely precise, it was not a street in the modern sense of the word, but a narrow winding path stretching from the Zelensky Congress to the modern Vakhitov Lane. From the shopping arcades located under the Kremlin hill, this “path” received the name “Zaryadye”.

The 17th century is a special period in the history of Nizhny Novgorod. At this time, it began to develop especially rapidly economically. And at the beginning of the “rebellious” century, the street began to be called Kosmodemyanskaya after the Church of Kozma and Demyan that stood in the center of Nizhny Posad (now it is Markin Square, or more precisely, the site of the Nizhnovenergo building).

But after the construction of the stone Nativity Church in 1653 by merchant-industrialist Semyon Zadorin, it began to be called Rozhdestvenskaya. This church was badly damaged by another fire, and another guest, Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov, built an architecturally original building nearby in 1719, which still exists today.

At first, the development of Nizhny Posad was carried out chaotically, in separate groups of buildings. But in 1770, the first regular plan of Nizhny Novgorod was drawn up, and in its subsequent revision in 1787, Rozhdestvenskaya Street was defined in straight lines. And at the beginning of the 19th century, according to the order of engineer A. A. Betancourt, in order to avoid fires, it was decided to build up this part of the city exclusively with stone buildings, and during the implementation of this decision, the street was, if possible, straightened by demolishing some dilapidated buildings.

The name of the famous builder of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair is, of course, no coincidence. Since 1816, Rozhdestvenskaya Street has become closely associated with fair trade. The wealthy Nizhny Novgorod merchants built hotels, apartment buildings, and banks at Rozhdestvenskaya - stone, solid buildings with expensive stucco decorations, which were like calling cards of their owners, their high social status and wealth.

The street underwent a particularly significant reconstruction in 1835-1839, when in the middle of it, on the site of the famous merchant Sofronov’s house, Sofronovskaya Square was created, which became the social and business center of the Lower Bazaar (modern Markin Square). At the exit of the street to the Oka Dock Bridge, warehouses were demolished and Alekseevskaya Square was laid out, named after the tent-roofed chapel in the name of Metropolitan Alexy that stood here (now Blagoveshchenskaya Square, named after the neighboring Annunciation Monastery).

The All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 changed the appearance of the city in many ways. The central streets (including Rozhdestvenskaya) were illuminated with arc electric lights, sidewalks and roads were paved, and cable cars began operating in the area of People's Unity Square and the Pokhvalinsky Congress. A power plant appeared opposite the pontoon bridge, providing the city with electricity. A big event for Nizhny was the opening of tram traffic on June 21, 1896. The line, 3.5 versts long, ran from Skoba to the bridge, connecting both funiculars. For the opening of the exhibition, the house of the merchants Blinov brothers (“Blinovsky Passage”) and the stock exchange were built on Rozhdestvenskaya Street. Both buildings decorate the modern Markina Square.

Thus, the street played the role of the city’s business center. There were six temples here. Let's list them, starting from the Kremlin:

Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist (more precisely, an architectural ensemble consisting of a temple and two chapels: “Spasskaya” (at the altar of the church) and “Tsarskaya” (to the left of the church porch)). Preserved

Church of St. Nicholas the World of Lycia the Wonderworker “at Market” (stood on the site of the modern shopping center “Ant”). Destroyed.

Church of the Life-Giving Trinity (Vakhitov lane). Destroyed.

2 churches of St. unmercenaries Kozma and Damian: old and new (modern Markin Square). Both are destroyed.

Church in the name of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Stroganovskaya). Preserved.

Rozhdestvenskaya Street(in Soviet times: Kooperativnaya, named after Mayakovsky, popular: Mayakovka)- the second most important street in the city after Pokrovki , a hub of restaurants, bars and nightlife Nizhny Novgorod , together with the adjacent Markin Square and Nizhnevolzhskaya embankment

At the same time, this is one of the oldest streets in the city, which has preserved the merchant flavor and “mercantile spirit” of the center of the business and commercial part of Nizhny.

No wonder the area adjacent to the shore Oka and Volga, called the Lower Bazaar . Banks, shipping company offices, shops, guest houses, restaurants, mansions - and nearby, under the Ivanovo Tower Kremlin , famous for stories Maxim Gorky "Millioshka" — the habitat of the roach, the “city bottom.”

Eras and styles mixed in the former trade and financial center of Nizhny. The metropolitan tastes brought by the exhibition of 1896 generously endowed merchant mansions with bay windows and domes, causing the envy of neighbors and the admiration of visiting guests.

The concept for the improvement of Rozhdestvenskaya Street involves dividing it into two zones: pedestrian and transport. Pedestrian traffic is organized along the territory along even-numbered houses to the tram line. Thanks to the fact that the second tram line was dismantled, it was possible to widen the roadway along odd-numbered houses. Thus, a parking area was allocated. The movement of trams will be reversible and on one track. Beautiful lamps, benches, trash cans and flower beds were installed along the entire street.

The houses located along the ancient street were not left without attention. It was decided to repair all the facades and equip each building with unique lighting so that the architectural monuments would appear before the residents of Nizhny Novgorod in all their glory.

An amount of 39 million rubles was allocated from the city budget to update the roadway and replace well hatches. Major road repairs were carried out using crushed stone-mastic asphalt concrete, which has the highest resistance to damage and durability. The old inspection well hatches have been replaced with “floating” ones, which weigh much less than their predecessors, have a durable frame and can be easily adjusted in height.

Two sculptural compositions were placed on the street. In particular, one of them - a memorial plate - is located on the site of the former Trinity Church cemetery in memory of the found burials of residents of Nizhny Novgorod Posad.

Another sculpture, made in the form of cast iron shoes and a bag of salt, is dedicated to the greed of Nizhny Novgorod merchants, recalling the activities of the merchant Fyodor Blinov. It stands on the site of the former Salt Office.

On November 2, 2012, the head of Nizhny Novgorod Oleg Sorokin, governor Valeriy Shantsev and head of administration Oleg Kondrashov took part in the grand opening of the restored section of the street. Rozhdestvenskaya.
The reconstruction of the entire Rozhdestvenskaya street is planned to be completely completed in the next few years.

Blinovsky passage

The complex, which is commonly called the Blinovsky Passage, was built as the largest apartment building according to the design of the St. Petersburg architect A. K. Bruni and was completed in 1879. This house, made in neo-Russian style, received its name from the owners - the richest Nizhny Novgorod merchant-industrialists, the Blinov brothers, who became rich mainly in the trade of bread, as well as the transportation and sale of salt.

Of all the houses on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, this one was the most multifunctional and densely populated. A variety of offices, shops, hotels, and warehouses were once located in the main building, facing Rozhdestvenskaya with its main façade, and in the “yard” parts of the house. The entire first floor was occupied by expensive shops with separate entrances. The shops on the second floor were accessible via internal staircases. When looking at the building from the former Safronovskaya Square (now Markin Square), you can see that on the left side of the five-story building there is the end of the block in which hotels and “stock exchange rooms” were located. In the central part on this level there was Permyakov’s restaurant, famous for the fact that it celebrated the departure of Maxim Gorky into exile.

In the right volume there was the first telegraph in the Volga region and the office of the oil stores of the Nobil brothers. Until 1896, this house housed a stock exchange. On the ground floor there was a passage that gave the name to the whole house.
During the Soviet years, the house still housed a post office, telegraph office, shops, and then a court was also located. And actually, in our time, little has changed - the building contains shops, restaurants, and various offices. Therefore, we can say that the idea of the Blinov brothers has fully justified itself, even though now without their capital...

The passage was built in 1876-1878 by architect R.Ya. Kilewein, designed by St. Petersburg architect A.K. Bruni. By order of the Blinovs, it was a huge four-story arcade building, the decorative and artistic decoration of which was stylized as “Ancient Rus'” using flies, piecework, machicolations in the attic floor, etc. Contemporaries in the 80s of the 19th century noted that during the construction of the passage “there were pretensions to grace... the height was enormous, the glass was mirrored,” but behind all this were hidden “matting coolies, barrels of kerosene and groceries.”

Some experts consider the Blinovsky passage to be a specific apartment building. In contrast to the apartment buildings of the early 19th century, it included primarily commercial and business premises. The central volume was occupied by a restaurant, shops with offices, banks, and apartment housing was located on the top floor. The left volume housed a hotel, the right - a telegraph office.

The perimeter of the courtyards was made up of two-story shops with offices. The main central entrance led to the passage, which was part of the system of courtyard buildings and was used for trading premises and a stock exchange.

In 1864, Nizhny Novgorod was visited by the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, who personally honored the Blinovs and their enterprise on Sofronovskaya Square with a visit. In honor of this event, the Blinovs allocated 25 thousand rubles for the establishment of a public bank, which they called Nikolaevsky. The Blinov brothers contributed large sums to the initial capital of the bank, financing orphanages, almshouses, hospitals, gymnasiums, schools, libraries, for the maintenance of which the bank annually allocated significant financial resources. The bank also provided money for urban services, including the installation of water supply, sewerage, electricity, and a telephone network, and also allocated funds for scholarships and benefits for fire victims.

In the Blinovs' passage, among others, the main office of the joint-stock Nizhny Novgorod-Samara Land Bank, opened in Nizhny Novgorod in 1872, worked. The bank met the need for mortgages that increased at the end of the 19th century by carrying out its financial transactions throughout eastern Russia. The Blinovsky Passage also housed the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Postal and Telegraph District, which was opened on October 1, 1886, the first in the Volga region. By the way, the Blinovs were one of the first in Nizhny to have a telephone. In total, in 1885 there were no more than 50 rooms in the city.

Apartment house of N. A. Bugrova.

A truly wonderful decoration of the city is the apartment building of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov, designated No. 27 on Rozhdestvenskaya Street. The history of its construction is closely connected with preparations for the XVI All-Russian Trade and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896. Major urban planning transformations dedicated to this grandiose event directly affected the area of the so-called Lower Bazaar, the actual business center of the city. Pompous mansions, shops and bank buildings were built on Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment and Rozhdestvenskaya Street. Many old houses have new facades with lush, eclectic decorative elements.

Since the middle of the 19th century, the site where this house was built belonged to the prominent merchant family of the Bugrovs, who bought it from the businessmen Pyatovs. The Bugrovs carried out active stone construction here. According to the real estate assessment sheet of the Rozhdestvenskaya part of Nizhny Novgorod (1874), Alexander Petrovich Bugrov owned two adjacent households overlooking both Rozhdestvenskaya Street and the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment. The first was a three-story stone house and a one-story stone outbuilding. The second, corner, household consisted of a three-story stone house, two stone outbuildings of three and two floors, as well as stone and wooden service buildings. These buildings were used as trade and office buildings, were rented out under contracts and brought substantial profits to the owners. So, for example, the first homeownership gave the Bugrov family a not bad annual income of up to 945 rubles.

Everything would be fine, but the last representative of the famous merchant dynasty, Nikolai Alexandrovich, the largest Nizhny Novgorod industrialist, financier, philanthropist and philanthropist, was not satisfied with the “modest” appearance of the houses on Rozhdestvenskaya he inherited from his father. To develop the design of the front building, the famous metropolitan architect, academician Vladimir Petrovich Zeidler (1857 - 1914) was invited, who arrived as the main producer of works at the Exhibition, the author of the projects of many buildings in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Anapa.

The house was originally conceived as a profitable one: with shops on the first floor, and most importantly with the office of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Volzhsko-Kama Commercial Bank on the second, as evidenced by the corresponding inscriptions on the facade, preserved on the design drawings (name of the bank, names of store owners and trading companies). It is known that by this time N.A. Bugrov had been a regular customer and an influential member of the accounting and loan committee of this bank for many years.

The choice of the bank was not accidental. Perhaps the most famous bank in pre-revolutionary Russia was founded in St. Petersburg by Vasily Aleksandrovich Kokorev - a truly bright, original and amazing man. Kokorev came from the burghers - Old Believers of the small remote town of Soligalich, Kostroma province. The same faith with the founder of the institution, and Bugrov, as you know, was an Old Believer, undoubtedly brought a certain sympathy in the attitude of the Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur to this institution. But the main thing, obviously, was something else. The Volzhsko-Kama Bank was one of the largest in pre-revolutionary Russia; it was rumored that the success of the founder passed on to it.

From a poor tradesman, Kokorev managed to turn into one of the richest, most influential and famous people in Russia. His candidacy was considered for the post of Minister of Finance of the Empire. He was the initiator and organizer of the construction of the world's first oil refinery near Baku. He was a co-founder of such well-known companies as the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade, the Caucasus and Mercury Shipping Company, the Volga-Don Railway Society, etc. He was involved in the development of gold mining, established trade between Russia and Persia, and participated in the development of a project for the liberation of peasants from serfdom. , making a lot of efforts to speed up this event. Kokorev gained great fame as a philanthropist and philanthropist. About two decades before Tretyakov, Vasily Alexandrovich not only opened the first exhibition gallery of young artists, but also systematically supported and developed the talents that appeared in his field of vision. Lay the foundation for the study of national art.

Kokarev founded his next brainchild, the Volga-Kama Bank, in 1870, and in the same year its branch opened in our city. Initially, the bank moved into a building on German Square, but the location turned out to be extremely unfortunate - on the very outskirts, far from business streets, next to a cemetery. After some time, they changed the address and moved across the river to the fair, but the fair only worked one month a year, and the rest of the time the bank branch experienced the same difficulties as in the old place. The bank's move to the Bugrovsky House was ideal from an economic point of view; here, on Rozhdestvenskaya, large deals were concluded and contracts worth millions were signed all year round. In this building, the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the bank successfully existed until nationalization in the revolutionary year of 1917.

House of merchant Pyatov

See the post about the house of merchant Pyatov here

Trading house and bank of Rukavishnikov

Among the iconic buildings on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, one of the prominent places is occupied by the building of the Rukavishnikov Bank, which is listed today at number 23 and was originally built as an apartment building with banking offices. The banking complex was conceived of two buildings, so the second building - the industrial one - was built on the Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment (now building number 10).

Of all the diverse row of houses on the Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment, the apartment building of Sergei Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov stands out with its unexpected “Gothic” theme surrounded by purely Russian architecture. The house was built in 1911-1913 by the outstanding Russian architect of the Art Nouveau era Fyodor Shekhtel.
The building has a complex silhouette, as it is designed to be viewed from the river. An interesting fact is that it is made in neo-Gothic, although Shekhtel practiced Gothic only in the 90s of the nineteenth century. Rationalism and romanticism are successfully combined here. Vertical, sweeping lines, subordinated to a dynamic upward impulse, give the building a special expressiveness. This is just a stylistic association with Gothic, which helps to reveal the frame structure of the building.

The facade combined motifs of medieval architecture and advanced construction technologies of the early twentieth century, with faceted turrets of different heights, completed with metal caps that form the silhouette of the building. This technique creates a strong motive that evokes associations with a powerful organ and contributes to the perception of the image as a kind of musical work. In this case, this is not a direct copying of the Gothic of the Middle Ages, but a pictorial composition, the author’s fantasy on the Gothic theme.
Organically, this building is one with the Rukavishnikov Bank, the facade of which faces Rozhdestvenskaya Street. The bank was also built according to the design of Fyodor Shekhtel, but a little earlier - in 1908. At that time, Shekhtel refused to use any historical styles and designed the building in the image of rational modernism. Above the main entrance there are allegorical sculptures by Konenkov, symbolizing industry and agriculture.

The Rukavishnikov dynasty of merchants, factory owners and bankers in the 19th century was one of the most famous in Nizhny Novgorod. Over time, their fame acquired an all-Russian scale.

The founder of the dynasty, Grigory Mikhailovich Rukavishnikov, originally from the village of Krasnaya Ramen, Makaryevsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, was a blacksmith. Having moved to Nizhny Novgorod in 1817 following the fair, he bought several shops and began actively trading in iron. Gradually the number of shops grew, capital increased, and Grigory Mikhailovich built his own ironworks. In 1836, for his activities, he received a medal from the Department of Manufactures and Internal Trade.

After a fire in 1899 in the Rukavishnikovs’ two-story stone house with two industrial buildings on Rozhdestvenskaya Street, they turned to the Construction Department of the city government with a request to repair the damaged buildings. However, the restored old buildings had a very unsightly appearance, and Sergei Rukavishnikov in 1908 turned to the Moscow architect F.O. Shekhtel with a request to develop facade plans for the construction of two buildings instead, whose main facades would face Rozhdestvenskaya Street (the bank itself) and Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment (industrial buildings).

The facades were designed in neo-Gothic forms. On the embankment - with powerful frame blades, completed with “pinnacles”, glazing of planes and wall cladding with polychrome ceramic tiles. Colored ceramics were also used in the cladding of the building facing Rozhdestvenskaya Street, in the decoration of which cast iron artistic casting was widely used, including round figures of a worker and a peasant woman, made according to the sketches of the young sculptor S.T. Konenkova.

After completion of construction, problems arose: the new buildings began to put pressure on the nearby Merchant Bank (Rozhdestvenskaya St., 21) and the Kudryashov-Chesnokov Apartment House (Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment, 9), cracks appeared in the walls. A special commission headed by architect A.N. was sent to the site. Poltanov. Hastily taken measures helped correct the situation.
Both Rukavishnikov buildings are striking examples of rational modernism. Many consider the Nizhny Novgorod banks of the early 20th century, built in the era of modernism, to be the best buildings in the city. The second half of the 19th century was the period of the greatest prosperity of banking in Nizhny Novgorod: new credit institutions appeared, as well as representative offices of the most famous Russian banks at that time. In 1908, a branch of the Russian Commercial and Industrial Bank, which was one of the largest in Russia, was located in the Rukavishnikov building on Rozhdestvenskaya Street. The Rukavishnikovs were the largest clients of this branch, so in business circles the bank was even called the “Rukavishnikovs’ bank,” and that’s how it went down in history.

Glorious for good deeds

(Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists and patrons of the arts XIX - early 10th centuries)

Biobibliographic index of literature

To the reader

The biobibliographic index “Glorious in Good Deeds” is dedicated to the glorious Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists and patrons of the 19th - early 20th centuries, their prominent representatives.

The bibliographic index is addressed primarily to young students (students, high school students), as well as to those interested in the history of their native land.

The index does not pretend to be exhaustive; it includes books, articles from periodicals and collections from the collections of the Central Regional Library named after. May 1 MU Central Library of the Sormovsky District and the Central City Library named after. V.I. Lenin (the latter are marked with an asterisk).

The index opens with an introductory article about charity and patronage in the Nizhny Novgorod region of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, followed by a list of general literature on this topic, where the material is arranged in the alphabet of authors and titles of books and articles.

Then the materials are grouped according to personal headings in the alphabet of personalities. Each section opens with a biographical sketch. This is followed by a list of literature about a given benefactor and patron of the arts (or an entire dynasty of benefactors), where the material is arranged in the alphabet of authors and titles of books and articles.

The biobibliographic index has 91 positions, is partially annotated, and is provided with an index of authors.

The selection of literature was completed in October 2002.

It is simply unthinkable to imagine Russian society in the 19th and 20th centuries without charity. Alms and mercy were one of the foundations of Russian life. It was not considered a sin to deceive, nor was it a sin to cheat in a trade transaction, but not to give to a beggar or a stranger was a sin. This Russian trait was noted by many.

By the end of the 19th century, the “merchant period” of the development of charity began, which was characterized by an increasing expansion of both private and public initiative. In Russia there was an extensive network of charitable societies and institutions for the benefit of the poor. In the past, every county, every city knew its “deeply respected” one by the hospitals, schools, shelters and almshouses built with his funds. Then they were praised for the theater, gallery, library or museum. Both of these merits left a mark in the memory of the Russian people: the first - of the common people, the second - of art connoisseurs. Patronage activities were very common among merchants.

It is difficult to imagine what a seedy city Nizhny would look like, how meager its history would be, if the merchants had not participated in its formation.

One cannot but agree with the deep thought of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin that “in the half-century preceding the revolution, the Russian merchants played a leading role in the everyday life of the country.” But Shalyapin didn’t know this when his talent reached unprecedented greatness thanks to merchant patronage. Reflecting on a domestic merchant who started his business by peddling a simple home-made friend, Fyodor Ivanovich says about him: “... He eats tripe in a cheap tavern, drinks tea with black bread as a bite. He freezes and gets cold, but he is always cheerful, does not complain and hopes for the future. He is not embarrassed by what goods he has to trade, trading in different ones. Today with icons, tomorrow with stockings, the day after tomorrow with amber, or even little books. Thus, he becomes an “economist.” And then, lo and behold, he already has a shop or a factory. And then, guess what, he’s already a merchant of the 1st guild. Wait - his eldest son is the first to buy a Gauguin, the first to buy a Picasso, the first to take a Matisse to Moscow. And we, the enlightened ones, look with disgusting mouths agape at all the Matisses, Manets and Renoirs that we still do not understand and say nasally and critically: “Tyrant...” Meanwhile, the tyrants have quietly accumulated wonderful treasures of art, created galleries, museums, first-class theaters, set up hospitals and shelters...” And here’s something else that the world-famous singer credits to the merchants: they “conquered poverty and obscurity, the violent discord of official uniforms and the inflated swagger of cheap, lisping and burring aristocracy.”

the first is to make good by righteous paths,

the second is to use what you get wisely,

third - do not spare a share for those who are in need,

fourth - do not tempt fate in vain.

Sometimes goods were lost, but honor was never lost. And it was not the merchant’s birth that raised him, but his beneficence.

Constantly increasing their fortune, the Nizhny Novgorod merchants became famous throughout Russia for their charity, their mercy, their desire to come to the aid of the poor, the orphaned and the wretched.

No matter what obstacles arose, the Nizhny Novgorod merchants remembered the Old Testament commandment - to do good for the fatherland and believed that the costs of good deeds would eventually pay off a hundredfold. And he was not mistaken: the good names of venerable entrepreneurs are now resurrected in memory and they are pronounced along with the names of famous public figures and scientists, architects and artists.

In the history of Nizhny Novgorod, some very rich childless merchants became known as the most generous patrons of the arts: Fyodor Pereplyotchikov, Fyodor Blinov, Alexander Vyakhirev, Nikolai Bugrov. These not very happy wealthy people had to console themselves with the thought that their memory would be preserved, if not by their own descendants, then, at worst, by the descendants of their blessed fellow citizens.

A firm word, efficiency, civic responsibility, concern for the social world, helping those in need - all this is inherent in the Bugrov, Bashkirovs, Rukavishnikovs, Blinovs, Sirotkins. They were different.

Yes, they were rich, very rich, owners of huge fortunes. They owned forests, houses, mills, factories, and ships. They could bathe in luxury, but still these people did not fall into childish egoism, they did not spin around in the carousel of insanely wasting their lives.

And they did not always earn their capital very honestly, and in their personal lives they were not blameless. But it was this moment of repentance that motivated these people to sacrifice. Moreover, this was not done from case to case.

Strong-willed, ambitious, zealous owners, they were donors for many city undertakings. They left named schools, hospitals, palaces, museums, enterprises, and trading floors as a legacy to the people of Nizhny Novgorod. They “inherited” such a legacy in Nizhny Novgorod that, perhaps, there is not a single building significant for history and culture in the construction of which their funds would not have been invested. With their help, we built a water supply system, a maternity hospital, a drama theater, a widow's shelter and temples, temples, temples.

1. Andrianov Yu. Merchants// Yu. Andrianov, V. Shamshurin. Old Nizhny: East. -lit. essays. - N. Novgorod, 1994. - P. 171-191.

2. Bibanov T.P. Mercy on the land of Nizhny Novgorod/ T.P. Bibanov, M.V. Bronsky // City of glory and loyalty to Russia. - N. Novgorod, 1996. - P. 136-138.

3 . Widow's House// Smirnova L.N. Nizhny Novgorod before and after: Historical-lit. essays. - N. Novgorod: Behemoth, 1996. - P. 187-188.

4. Galai Yu. Capital for charity// City and citizens. - 1993. - No. 5 (Jan.-Feb.) - P.8.

In May 1902 merchant widow M.A. Bochkareva bequeaths “most of the property and capital” to charitable purposes.

5 . Every family is famous and glorious: From the history of Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurship XYII - early. XX century / Comp. A.N. Golubinova, N.F. Filatov, L.G. Chandyrina.- N. Novgorod: Committee on Archives, administrator. Nizhny Novgorod region, 1999. - 272 p.

6.* Kazaev I.I. Plumbing not made by slaves// Nizhny Novgorod. worker. - 1992. - July 11. - P. 7.

About the Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists Blinov, Bugrovy, Kurbatov and Bashkirov.

7. Kazaev I. And before the ruble was based on the word of honor, but on the merchant’s// Nizhny Novgorod. worker. - 1993. - June 10. - P. 5.

About the Nizhny Novgorod public bank.

8 . Lebedinskaya G. House of Compassion and Mercy// Nizhny Novgorod. worker. - 1998. - November 14. - P. 6.

About the construction of the Widow's House (for mendicant widows with children) named after the Blinovs and Bugrovs.

9. Medvedeva A.A. Guardianship and charitable activities in the Nizhny Novgorod province until 1917// Nizhny Novgorod. old man. - 2001. - No. 12. - P. 12-15.

10. Mikhailova S. Lunch cost five kopecks // City and citizens. - 1993. - No. 18 (April-May) - P. 16.

About what local entrepreneurs did in so-called force majeure situations

Circumstances (droughts, fires, etc.)

11 . Mikhailova S. Noble Shelter: [Shelter for charity of poor hereditary nobles of the Nizhny Novgorod province] // City and townspeople. - 1993. - No. 17 (Jan.-Feb.) - P. 6.

12 . Mukhina I. A single impulse of mercy: about cast iron boots and a sensitive conscience // Nizhegorsk Truth. - 1999. - December 25. - P. 6. - (Between the past and the future).

13. “Strong people of good breed”// Our land: Book. for students of schools, gymnasiums, lyceums / Comp. V. Shamshurin. - 2nd ed., revised - N. Novgorod, 1998. - P. 175-191.

Bugrovs, Rukavishnikovs, Bashkirovs, Sirotkin.

14.*Skochigorov V.N. Charitable activities of major Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurs// 100 years of the XYI All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod. - N. Novgorod, 1997. - P. 77-79.

15. Smirnov D. N. The city at the zenith of merchant glory// Smirnov D.N. Nizhny Novgorod antiquity. - N. Novgorod, 1995. - P. 484 - 496.

16. Filatov N. F. Nizhny Novgorod. ArchitectureXIY - beginningXX century. - N. Novgorod: Ed.-ed. center "Nizhegor.novosti", 1994. - 256 p.

A special chapter is devoted to historical and architectural monuments that have been left as a legacy to the city.

From Nizhny Novgorod merchants.

17 . Shonov P. How the merchants fed the school// Nizhny Novgorod. true.-1998.-May 16.-S. 5.

On the organization of the Nizhny Novgorod River School, the Kulibinsky Vocational School, the trustees of which were N.A. Bugrov and Ya.E. Bashkirov.

18 . Shuin I. Until their line is cut off: [Charity activities of Nizhny Novgorod merchants] // Nizhegorod. Truth. - 1993. - May 14. - P.3.

Bashkirovs

A wealthy steamboat operator and flour miller, the founder of the trading house “Emelyan Bashkirov and his sons” began his path to wealth from scratch. Both in Kopnin and in Nizhny Novgorod, he was constantly driven by a single and all-consuming idea - to become one of the people. Emelyan Grigorievich had to rely only on his own hands and shoulders and the help of his growing children. In the uncompromising struggle of life, Emelyan Bashkirov spared no one: neither himself, nor hired workers, nor his own sons. His children had to endure a lot of hardships in their youth.

Ya.E. Bashkirov

Nikolai, Yakov and Matvey Emelyanovich walked hundreds of miles along the banks of the Volga and Oka, harnessed to their parents’ barge straps with grain.

The strong peasant boys of the Bashkirovs survived. Using the money earned together with his children, Emelyan Bashkirov, a few years later, bought a stone shop in one of the fair houses and began a brisk trade in grain. Bashkirov, a former serf, became not just wealthy, but became one of the ten richest merchants in Nizhny Novgorod.

After the death of the elder Bashkirov in 1891, all his millions of capital passed to his sons. The sons turned out to be worthy successors. Their fame spread throughout Russia. Bashkirov-milled flour was considered the best, it was asked for in all parts of the province, and it became known abroad. The Bashkirovs were strong, real masters. The mills they built still stand in Nizhny Novgorod. And what benefits they bring!

Growing richer year by year, the Bashkirov brothers brought the value of their enterprises in 1908 to 12 million rubles. According to the custom established by my father, the skilled part of the workers used the premises in the barracks at the mills for free. The year 1912 brought a government handout to workers - the law on sickness funds. The first health insurance fund was organized in Nizhny at the mill of Matvey Bashkirov... The sons of deceased workers were given 30 rubles. For the funeral of deceased family members, workers were given 6 rubles, and women in labor were given a four-ruble allowance.

The wealthy merchant Yakov Bashkirov generously donated to children's and educational institutions. In 1883, a merchant-philanthropist generously helped a real school, invested a lot of effort and money into the creation of a women's vocational school, and built the so-called Bashkirov School in Kanavin. This thorough man also cared about the spiritual life of his fellow citizens. Yakov Emelyanovich became one of the co-founders of the Nizhny Novgorod Vladimir Society of Banner Bearers, the founder of the Church of the Savior on Ostrozhnaya Street and the church in the village of Krutets, where he was once baptized. In 1901, he provided significant financial support to the city theater. The city authorities highly appreciated the diverse charitable activities of Yakov Bashkirov, awarding him the title of Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod.

M.E. Bashkirov

And Matvey Bashkirov throughout his life donated a lot of money to the cause of public education. When the Polytechnic Institute, evacuated from Warsaw, moved to Nizhny Novgorod, a wealthy flour miller presented its rector with a check for half a million rubles - the most significant contribution among the Nizhny Novgorod merchants. He donated money from the bottom of his heart and in this he was strikingly different from his brother Yakov. In his charitable activities, Matvey Emelyanovich was similar to N.A. Bugrov - he also never demanded anything for good deeds. Matvey Bashkirov became one of the uncrowned kings of Nizhny Novgorod. He had enormous wealth and significant financial power.

But this man always tried to remain in the shadows.

20 . Makarov I.A. Bashkirovs// N. Novgorod. - 1997. - No. 7. - P. 187-201.

21. Sedov A. Flour milling business. Bashkirovs// Nizhny Novgorod region: Facts, events, people. - N. Novgorod, 1994. - P.205-207.

22. Fischer F. The drama of life of the Bashkirov dynasty// Nizhny Novgorod. Truth. - 1994. -

About the merchant granddaughter L.K. Bashkirova, about the successor of her grandfather - the director of the flour mill

Viktor Ilyin.

25. Shamshurin V.A. Bashkirov with sons// Our region. - N. Novgorod, 1997. - P. 184-186.

26. Shiln A. Bashkirovsky mills // Course N. - 1993. - March 20. - P. 14.

Blinovs

The list of names of outstanding Nizhny Novgorod businessmen rightfully includes the name of the Blinovs, people who left a significant mark on the history of their native city.

The famous merchant dynasty of the Blinovs comes from the peasants of the Balakhninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province. The future merchants of the first guild, the builders of the Nizhny Novgorod water supply system and the Widow's House - former serfs of Prince Repnin - took up a very common trade in the city - trading in bread.

Things quickly went up for the former Balakhna men, their capital grew, and soon enough they became highly respected citizens of Nizhny Novgorod.

The main role in the family bread company was played by the eldest son, Fedor. He was an extremely purposeful, resourceful and tenacious person, but not too scrupulous in commerce. At first, his main life principle boiled down to the ancient merchant rule: profit above all else. He strictly followed this law and during the initial 10-15 years of his merchant career he never regretted it.

The path to the first guild was far from easy: the merchant had to work not only with his head, but also with his broad, powerful back, on which he carried more than one thousand heavy bags of grain and flour. In defending his own interests, Fyodor Andreevich sometimes used his fists.

The very rapid growth of Blinov’s capital was explained not only by the fact that the businessman, like a regular, was busy in his business, giving no concessions to either himself or his clerks. His success, to some extent, was due to the fact that, given the opportunity, he was not averse to deceiving an overly trusting partner.

The 60s of the 11th century were marked by the beginning of Fyodor Andreevich’s social and charitable activities. He donated quite generously for the benefit of the city, much more than all other Nizhny Novgorod fellow craftsmen.

Blinov’s altruistic activities for the benefit of his fellow citizens began in 1961 with the paving of the Assumption Congress and the arrangement of Sofronovskaya Square. This useful idea cost the merchant about 40 thousand rubles.

In the same 1861, Fyodor Andreevich did another good deed for the city - he founded the Nizhny Novgorod Nikolaev City Public Bank, donating 25 thousand rubles to it. To prove to his fellow citizens the complete selflessness of his actions, Blinov set up a shelter in one of his houses for 25 elderly lonely residents of the city. For three years and nine months, the almshouse existed only on donations from a compassionate merchant.

The philanthropic actions of this generous man created for him enormous authority among the bourgeoisie. In 1866, Blinov was elected mayor, but Fyodor Andreevich was unable to take office: the supreme power did not approve the decisions of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma.

Fate was not stingy and endowed its favorite with significant wealth. The successful merchant was unlucky in only one thing - God did not reward him with children, and there was no one to leave his acquired fortune to. In this situation, Blinov had no choice but to continue the charitable activities he had begun earlier.

This is not a complete list of Fedor Andreevich’s benefits.

In 1872, Fyodor Blinov donated 1,000 rubles to establish a temporary hospital for cholera patients. Two years later, he gave 6,000 rubles to establish craft classes at the First Children's Orphanage. In July 1876, the merchant allocated 5,000 rubles for the installation of a laundry in the Second Children's Shelter, and in May 1877 he donated another 3,000 rubles for the renovation of orphanage buildings.

For saving hundreds of starving peasants of Semyonovsky district in the harsh winter of 1877/78, the Nizhny Novgorod Duma decided to especially honor the donor: Fyodor Blinov was presented with the title of honorary citizen of Nizhny Novgorod.

The charitable activities of the merchant, who traded in many cities of Russia, were not limited only to the borders of his native province. In 1872, Blinov was approved as a member of the board of trustees of the Nikolaev Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. For this high honor, he had to annually contribute 300 rubles to the institution’s cash desk. In 1872, he donated 2,000 rubles for the establishment of a city Public Bank in the city of Tsivilsk, Kazan province. In 1878, a merchant-philanthropist made the first contribution to the creation of a cruising fleet in Russia - 10,000 rubles.

The merchant donated a lot of money for the needs of his native city for almost two decades, and Nizhny Novgorod, represented by the Duma, showed him signs of deepest respect and sincere gratitude. But the central government did not favor Blinov with distinctions.

The rich and generous donor Blinov, awarded several of the highest favors, did not have a single state award, not even a medal, nor was he given the title of Commerce Advisor.

The successors of Fyodor Andreevich’s work and the successors of the Blinov family were his younger brothers, Aristarchus and Nikolai.

In the mid-80s, Aristarkh and Nikolai Blinov became trustees of the shelter named after Countess O.V. Kutaisova, Aristarkh was included in the board of trustees of the Nizhny Novgorod Real School. However, this activity of the younger Blinov brothers was only a pale copy of the activity of their older brother. Aristarchus and Nikolai “worked off” the title of honorary citizen of the city; for Fyodor, such activity was an integral part of life.

27. Averkina E. 89 diamonds from the crown of the bread king// City and citizens. - 1996. - November 10. - P. 17.

28. Kazaev I.V. From the history of the Blinov dynasty// Every family is famous and glorious: From the history of Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurship of the 17th - early 20th centuries / Comp. A. N. Golubinova, N. F. Filatov, L.G. Chandyrina. - Nizhny Novgorod, 1999. - pp. 73-77.

29. Kazaev I. Bread and salt from the Blinov brothers// Nizhny Novgorod. worker. - 1994. - August 23. - P. 20.

30. Makarov I.A. Dear citizens of Nizhny Novgorod// Every family is famous and glorious: From the history of Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurship of the 17th - early 20th centuries / Comp. A.N. Golubinova, N.F. Filatov, L. G. Chandyrina. - Nizhny Novgorod, 1999. - pp. 77-86.

IN AND. Breev

Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur, publisher and collector, well-known cultural figure in the city V.I. Breev lived in his own house on Ilyinskaya Street. His home museum of fine arts contained paintings by I. Levitan, I. Shishkin, V. Makovsky and many local painters - his friends and acquaintances.

In 1912, for the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812, with the participation of V. Breev, a large exhibition was organized in the Kremlin Manege, where ancient popular prints, battle engravings and paintings were exhibited. Artist F.S. Bogorodsky (1895-1959) recalled: “At Breev’s order through the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, students P. Krasnov, M. Demyanov, G. Maltsev and others painted a whole series of paintings on historical Nizhny Novgorod themes.” Breev published color reproductions of these paintings and sketches in the form of postcards, as well as an album-folder. Nowadays, complete sets of these rare publications are stored in the funds of the A.M. Gorky and the N.A. Museum Dobrolyubova. The richest collection of Breev's postcards on various topics is presented in the philocartic collection of V. Smirnov (Dzerzhinsk).

Constantly visiting exhibitions in N. Novgorod, Breev photographed the best paintings and then published their reproductions. Thus, many plots from the works of V. Likin, M. Michurin and others were preserved for posterity, although the originals were mostly lost. His store at the Nizhny Bazaar sold books, engravings and paintings by Nizhny Novgorod residents.

In 1913, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the House of Romanov, Breev also organized an exhibition. A.M. Gorky, who knew the philanthropist closely, says in his memoirs: “Breev hired a barge, arranged an exhibition of paintings on it and took it up the Volga: look, people, what things you are capable of. Thousands of people came!” The exhibition and sale was successful and was able to financially support artists - members of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Art Lovers (NOLKh). Founded in February 1901, it existed until 1918 and regularly organized exhibitions and charity events for the benefit of the poor.

It remains to add that in our time (1994), the art gallery “Caryatida”, together with other organizations, held an exhibition of youth painting “Another Generation” on a ship along the Volga route... And the first was V. Breev.

31. Krainov-Rytov L. Rare autograph of a patron of the arts// Nizhny Novgorod. worker. - 1996. -

Bugrovs

ON THE. Bugrov

In the nineties, in Nizhny Novgorod, as well as throughout the Volga region, the name of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov, the grandson of Pyotr Egorovich Bugrov, who through honest work and intelligence achieved wealth and turned from a stocky barge hauler into the largest grain merchant, installed mills on the Linda River, thundered. In addition, Bugrov contracted the construction of government buildings and completed orders in the shortest possible time. At the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, bridges across canals were built under his supervision. By the end of the fifties, Pyotr Bugrov had accumulated a million-dollar fortune. His closest assistant was his son Alexander Petrovich. The next million was made mainly by Bugrov the son from operations with government salt and from trading in felted products.

Nikolai Bugrov fully inherited the entrepreneurial talents of his father and grandfather, he continued the family business with dignity, managed to wisely manage the millions of capital acquired by his grandfather and father, increasing them. “Millionaire, large grain merchant, owner of steam mills, a dozen steamships, a flotilla of barges, huge forests - N.A. Bugrov played the role of an appanage prince in Nizhny and the province.” This was already an all-powerful master who held the fates of many people in his hands and who was called the uncrowned king of Nizhny Novgorod. And in the Duma, and at the stock exchange, and at the fair, and in commercial offices, the first word was with Bugrov.

The Bugrovs are remembered by Nizhny Novgorod residents primarily for their generous charity. It was common to all of them, but Nikolai Alexandrovich did the most.

On the days of memory of his illustrious ancestor, he organized “funeral tables”. They were placed on Gorodets Square, stocked with bread and jugs of kvass. Poor brethren from all over the area came here, receiving free food and silver ten-kopeck pieces. It was Bugrov, together with the merchant Blinov and the factory owner Kurbatov, who gave the city a new water supply system, built the famous shelter for the homeless, built the famous “widow’s house” for widows and orphans (the Polytechnic dormitory on Lyadova Square), and spared no expense in the construction of churches, hospitals and schools. The foundations of Bugrovsky buildings are still strong, and its houses themselves still serve people flawlessly.

The Bugrovs always and in everything supported the Old Believers - co-religionists, but Nikolai Alexandrovich surpassed his grandfather and father in this too, amazing his fellow believers. In 1889, he managed to open an Old Believer school in his native village of Popovo, Semenovsky district.

Nikolai Alexandrovich played a major role in the fate, organization and holding of the famous All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod. Thanks to his business connections with the Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte, the Nizhny Novgorod authorities managed to convince the government to hold the XVI exhibition not in Moscow, as expected, but in Nizhny. With the preparation for this exhibition, Nizhny Novgorod residents' long-time dreams of a new theater came to life. N. Bugrov allocated 200 thousand rubles for the construction of a new theater. And Nikolai Alexandrovich bought the old theater building for 50 thousand rubles, rebuilt it, gave it a majestic appearance and in 1904 presented it to the City Duma as a token of gratitude from the Nizhny Novgorod merchants to the city government for the development and improvement of Nizhny. The Duma respectfully accepted this luxurious gift and, as a sign of gratitude, called its new premises “N.A.’s charitable building.” Bugrova" (now it is the Palace of Labor), as a memorial plaque now tells all passers-by.

Nikolai Alexandrovich died with words of goodness. His last testament to his family was this: “Live in peace and do not offend anyone, most of all have pity on the poor brethren.”

32. Averkina E. 89 diamonds from the crown of the bread king// City and citizens. - 1996. - November 10. - P. 17.

33. Galai Y. “To the eternal property of the city”: [About the night shelter N.A. Bugrova] // Lenin's shift. - 1993. - July 3. - P. 2.

34. Gorky M.N.A. Bugrov// Nizhny Novgorod. - 1998. - No. 2. - P. 5-30.

36. Gurevich V. Bugrovy// Nizhny Novgorod. fair. - 1995. - No. 33. - P. 12. - (Gentlemen of Nizhny Novgorod)

37. Zubkov A. Colorful figures of the past. ON THE. Bugrov// Krasny Sormovich. - 1992. - July 25. - P. 4.

38. Markidonova E. Houses and money as a gift to the city// Course N. - 1999. - No. 45 (November) - P. 15.

40.* Nyakiy V. Nikolay Bugrov is a worthy example for the “new Russians”// Economics and life. - 1996. - August 29. - From 11.

41 “He did not create treasures for himself on earth…// Nizhegorod. worker. -1994. - July 13. - P. 10.

45. Sedov A.V. Where are you, modern Bugrovs?[About the night shelter A.P. and N.A. Bugrova] // Nizhegorod. news. - 1995. - September 26. - C. 3.

46.* Sedov A.V. Blue flour - semolina from the Bugrovykhs// Exchange Plus. - 2000. - December 28. - P. 12.

47.* Sedov A.V. Speculation about Bugrovsky capitals // Exchange. - 2000. - 2nd of March. - P. 11.

48.* Sedov A.V. A worthy heir to P. E. Bugrova// Exchange. - 2000. - No. 36. - P. 11.

49.* Sedov A.V. Merchants Bugrovy at the Nizhny Novgorod fair// Exchange. - 2000. - October 19. - P. 11.

50.* Sedov A.V. The moral character of Pyotr Bugrov// Exchange. - 2000. - No. 25. - P. 11.

51. Sedov A.V. Flour milling business. Bugrovs// Nizhny Novgorod region: Facts, events, people. - N. Novgorod: Nizhegorod. humanist center, 1994. - pp. 202-205.

52.* Sedov A.V. The beginning of Bugrovsk charity// Exchange. - 2000. - June 8. - P. 11.

53. Sedov A.V. The beginning of the Bugrov dynasty// Nizhny Novgorod. worker. - 1994. - November 4. - P. 5.

55. Sedov A.V. Founder of the Nizhny Novgorod Bugrovyh company// Questions of history. - 1994. - No. 7. - P. 175-178.

56.* Sedov A.V. Patriotic feat of P. E. Bugrov// Exchange. - 2000. - No. 24. - P. 11.

57. Sedov A. Glorious merchant family// N. Novgorod. - 1998. - No. 2. - P. 16-30, 172 -195. - (Nizhegorod. fatherland).

58. Shuin I. Awards for charity// Advertising newsletter. - 1996. - No. 17. - P.9.

Vyakhirevs

The Vyakhirev family traced its origins back to Andrei Andreevich Vyakhirev. The working family, engaged in knitting fishing gear, then began to get involved in trading.

A.A. Vyakhirev

Andrei Andreevich's grandson Ivan Antipovich decided to redeem himself from serfdom. However, the owner of Borzovka (now part of Nizhny Novgorod), Count V.G. Orlov-Davydov, offered to buy out “the whole world.” Borzov men collected the required amount of money and in 1828 became free cultivators.

The Vyakhirevs set up a rope-knitting factory on the banks of the Oka, and at the same time began supplying mast timber to Balakhna.

In 1835, the large Vyakhirev family was divided. Ivan Antipovich joined the Nizhny Novgorod merchant class. His work was continued by his heirs - eight sons. The second son Mikhail, thanks to his extraordinary commercial abilities, took over the family business after the death of his parent.

Then a family division between the brothers followed, and only the younger brother, Ishmael, remained to live with Mikhail Ivanovich; through his efforts, the family subsequently became famous not only for its bold entrepreneurial actions, but also for its charity work for the benefit of the people of Nizhny Novgorod. For this good deed, the government awarded him an order and four gold neck medals “For Diligence.”

Leafing through the chronicle of the Nizhny Novgorod Pechersky Monastery, we learn that the Nizhny Novgorod merchant Izmail Vyakhirev donated thirty thousand bricks and more than two thousand rubles for the repair of the entrance holy gates and other monastic services. In the papers of the Nizhny Novgorod master there is a written certificate of the transfer of his own place on Varvarinskaya Street for the construction of a public almshouse.

The most valuable offering to the city and its parishioners was the temple in the village of Karpovka. The book of records of church property testifies that the church in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord was built in 1817, and in 1869, according to a newly drawn up plan, it was rebuilt with the care and support of the former parishioners of this church, Hereditary honorary citizens of the brothers Ishmael and Mikhail Vyakhirev, in addition, numerous donations were invested in its arrival by merchants Semyon Ivanovich Vyakhirev and Ivan Antipovich Vyakhirev.

Through their labor, the Vyakhirevs rose to the ranks of the first guild merchant class, and for their charitable deeds for the benefit of the city, they proudly and proudly bore the title of Hereditary Honorary Citizens of the great Russian Empire.

59. Vyakhirev A.A. From the family of “free tillers”// Every family is famous and glorious: From the history of Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurship in the XYII - early XX centuries / Comp. A.N. Golubinova, N.F. Filatov, L.G. Chandyrina. - N. Novgorod, 1999. - P. 180-188.

60. Vyakhirev V.V. Family of Vyakhirev merchants// City of glory and loyalty to Russia. - N. Novgorod. - 1996. - P. 131-136.

61. Galai Yu.G. People from the common people// Every family is famous and glorious: From the history of Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneurship of the 17th - early 20th centuries / Comp. A.N. Golubinova, N.F. Filatov, L.G. Chandyrina. - N. Novgorod, 1999. - P. 179-180.

62. Makarov I.A. Vyakhirevs// N. Novgorod. - 1997. - No. 10. - P. 174-181.

Kostrominy

The founder of the Kostromin merchant family was a peasant from the Nizhny Novgorod Pechersky Monastery, a certain Mikhail Andreyanov’s son. He conducted a fairly successful trade with Kostroma, thanks to which he probably received a surname and moved into the category of so-called economic peasants who earned their living not by plows and ploughs, but by trade. In 1764, the resourceful peasant declared capital in the city of Cherny Yar and enrolled in the local merchant class. He himself continued to live in one of the villages near Nizhny Novgorod. Enrolling in the merchant class of another city freed the merchant from ruinous public service (many people used this technique). Mikhail Andreyanov became famous thanks to the fact that he took under his protection and brought into the public the outstanding Russian inventor I.P. Kulibin, for which he was granted an audience with the queen and a silver mug with a gilded portrait of Catherine II and a dedicatory inscription: “Catherine II, Empress and Autocrat of All Russia, grants this mug to Mikhail Andriyanov for his virtue shown to the mechanic Ivan Petrov, son Kulibin, 1769, April 1st day."

Mikhail Andriyanov’s son Ivan, into whose hands his father’s trading affairs passed, was distinguished, along with his energy and resourcefulness, by cheating and unreliability. The funds of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Archives contain several court cases regarding the failure to comply with I.M. Kostromin contracts for the supply of salt and refusals to pay bills. However, despite this, he enjoyed quite a lot of respect in the merchant society of Nizhny Novgorod and was elected in the late 70s as an assessor of the magistrate, and then as the mayor.

The successor to the affairs of the fraudulent Ivan Mikhailovich was his only son, who, unlike his father, was a more successful and decent entrepreneur. It was he who continued the charitable activities begun by his grandfather, but with the clear and cherished goal of obtaining nobility. In 1805 he donated 10,000 rubles. to purchase a stone house for the hospital, for which he was awarded a gold medal on a Vladimir ribbon. In 1806, when militias were formed to fight Napoleon, who was marching victoriously across Europe at that time, A. Kostromin donated 5,000 rubles. for equipping troops. This time there was no reaction from the authorities. Kostromin decided to remember the past merits of his grandfather, noted by the royal favor, and the merchant’s nomination to the officer rank and, consequently, to the nobility went to St. Petersburg. But the answer from the capital came in the negative. Kostromin did not give up his dream and donated large sums of money to the city, but he did not receive the coveted nobility.

His son rose to the rank of nobility by entering military service. Later he continued the work of his ancestors, retiring and taking up trade. True, his affairs were not very successful. He did not become a real nobleman, and he did not turn out to be a merchant. The Kostromin family of merchants ended there.

63. Makarov I.A. Kostrominy// N. Novgorod. - 1997. - No. 8. - P. 199-208.

Michurins

The Michurin family came from serf peasants of the Kostroma province. In the Michurin family, everyone worked, everyone made their contribution to the common well-being.

The first branch of the Michurin family became famous for the dynasty of Nizhny Novgorod architects and artists. Mitrofan Michurin was part of the circle of professional Nizhny Novgorod painters, was a participant in all city and provincial art exhibitions, and then became the founder and long-term permanent chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Society for the Promotion of Arts, as well as a free school attached to it.

The founder of the second line of the Michurin clan, Vasily Klimentievich, like his older brother, began to learn the trade in his father’s carpentry artel. For several years, together with his older brother Kiriak, he was engaged in contract work, and after his death he became the rightful owner of the family capital.

Nature rewarded him with exclusively business qualities. His entrepreneurial spirit would be enough for two, or even three merchants. Vasily Klimentievich was a businessman to the core. In pursuit of profit, he would not spare his own mother. The first victims of his money-grubbing were the family of his deceased brother. Vasily Klimentievich disinherited his widow and several young children.

The cunning merchant skillfully managed the money he received. He took on any job, erected houses in Nizhny Novgorod, laid bridges across rivers during the construction of the highway between Moscow and Nizhny, and participated in the laying of the city water supply. Very soon Vasily Michurin became the largest Nizhny Novgorod contractor. One family house was no longer enough for the rich merchant, and he began to buy real estate. By the mid-50s, the former serf Amalia Adams owned one wooden and four stone houses in Nizhny Novgorod.

But gradually the initial craving for money began to weaken, and another passion came to replace it. The more Michurin got rich, the more irresistible was his obsessive desire to become a member of the nobility. A serf who had just emerged from the dirt was striving to become rich.

An example for him was the merchant I.S. Pyatov, who was elevated to the dignity of nobility for his considerable services to the city.

However, this required not only wealth, but also outstanding public activity. The latter did not frighten the ambitious merchant. He is ready to crawl through even the ear, just to get into the coveted nobility.

Vasily Michurin began serving the city in a more than modest position once occupied by his father - as the headman of the Zhivonosnovskaya church. Almost simultaneously with the registration in the first guild, Vasily Klimentievich was elected to the post of assessor in the Nizhny Novgorod Civil Chamber. Two years later, he became the treasurer of the prison committee, and in 1852, the energetic merchant reached the pinnacle of his public career - he became the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod. Vasily Michurin served two three-year terms in this high position.

He, who once shamelessly stole from his brother’s wife and children, does not skimp on generous donations to an orphanage, does not spare thousands of rubles for the repair and decoration of his parish church, builds a hospital and a church in the city prison, and erects an impressive building of a public city bath on the shore of the Black Pond. , helps local historian N.I. Khramtsovsky publish scientific works. Michurin was confident that generous charity would more than pay off and quickly provide considerable social capital. And so it happened.

For his broad gestures in favor of the city, the Pharisee merchant was awarded several of the highest favors and the gratitude of the Synod. And after verbal thanks came higher insignia. Vasily Klimentievich was elevated to hereditary honorary citizenship, awarded a bronze medal and in memory of the Crimean War, the Order of St. Anne III degree, and then a gold neck medal “For Diligence” on the Stanislavsky ribbon, they are presented to the second medal - on the Annensky ribbon.

Everything turned out just fine for Michurin. He was already seriously thinking about the Order of St. Vladimir IV degree, which gave the right to hereditary nobility. The merchant, who made sweeping gestures in public, remained the same in his soul, a penny-pincher shaking over every penny. Here, as luck would have it, various sins of the greedy applicant for the title of nobility began to emerge, and with such a reputation there was no point in thinking about receiving the Order of St. Vladimir, and therefore the treasured hereditary nobility. By this time, Michurin began to have troubles in commercial affairs.

For an old, almost forgotten sin, fate cruelly punished Vasily Michurin not only with business failures and large monetary losses. His grandchildren were destined for the unenviable fate of the children of Kiriak Klimentievich - they were left orphans at an early age. And then the most terrible blow fell on the old man - at the age of 23, his only son Pavel died.

After the loss of his son, the life of this extraordinary entrepreneur began to quickly decline. All household concerns fell on the shoulders of his wife, Avdotya Vasilievna, née Rukavishnikova. She is busy renting city land, supplying the bathhouse on the Black Pond with water and firewood, and laying a new water supply line. However, the energetic merchant’s wife failed to revive the declining farm.

65. Makarov I.A. Michurins// N. Novgorod. - 1997. - No. 12. - P. 190-197.

A. F. Olisov

The Olisovs have been known in Nizhny Novgorod since the 16th century. By the 18th century, the soap-making industrialists Stepan and Davyd Olisovs stood out among the wealthy people of the city. Afanasy's father, Firs Olisov, came from the David family, whose name as a revered ancestor was included in the synodics of various monasteries. Since childhood, Afanasy helped his father in his trading business, and at the beginning of his independent activity he tried to engage in leather production, but his business did not work out. A. Olisov’s return to the family soap-making industry was regarded by him as a temporary measure. In 1665, solicitor B. Polibin writes that A. Olisov, in addition to soap making, also conducts large-scale trading business - “buys all sorts of overseas goods in Moscow and Nizhny and at fairs and sells them at the Gostiny Dvor.”

In 1666 he became the Nizhny Novgorod customs head. His affairs are going uphill, connections with the royal court are being established. After the suppression of the peasant uprising in the Volga region under the leadership of S. Razin, Afanasy, as a special confidant of the government, was appointed in 1672 as manager of the royal salt and fisheries of the Astrakhan-egg industry. Popular unrest continued in some places, and A. Olisov risked his life when taking office. Therefore, before leaving for Astrakhan, he built the votive stone Church of the Assumption “in fulfillment of his aspirations and hopes.” The stone temple replaced the previously standing wooden one.

At the end of 1676, A. Olisov returned to Nizhny Novgorod and here he was elected zemstvo elder. In the same year, he was sent by the townspeople to Moscow with a petition to the Tsar about the ruin of the common people due to growing state taxes and, above all, Streltsy bread. Olisov not only achieved a royal audience, but also received permission for Nizhny Novgorod residents not to pay old debts. The meeting with the tsar had positive results for Olisov himself: he was granted the merchant title of “guest”, and by decree of 1677 he was again appointed manager of the “sovereign palace fishery and salt industry in Astrakhan and Yaik.” The merchant's business flourished, and in 1678, on Ilyinskaya Hill next to the Assumption Church, he erected stone two-story chambers, which created a single ensemble with the church. The stone buildings even survived the devastating fire of 1701. And although a large amount of his goods and property burned in this fire, the very next year he again rebuilt shops, winter courtyards and began to build a new stone church in the name of the Savior and St. Sergius the Wonderworker. In 1704 A. Olisov dies. The descendants of A. Olisov have been mentioned for a long time among small traders in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.

66. Filatov N.F. Trading house of Nizhny Novgorod guest A.F. Olisova// Notes of local historians. - Gorky, 1979. - P. 189-195.

About the Nizhny Novgorod merchant XVII century A.F. Olisov, his trade, industrial and charitable activities, in particular about his construction of the Assumption Church in N. Novgorod.

F.P. Bookbinders

The merchant of the second guild Fyodor Petrovich Pereplyotchikov began his social activities very early - already at the age of 31 (1810) he was elected as a member of the city duma. As a public official, Perepletchikov showed extraordinary abilities and extraordinary generosity - his major contribution to the cause of the people's militia in 1812 was especially noted at a meeting of the city duma.

In 1816, at the age of 37, F.P. Pereplyotchikov was elected for the first time to the position of mayor of Nizhny Novgorod (for two years). The most important event for the city and the entire Nizhny Novgorod province of this period was the fire of the Makaryevskaya fair in 1816 and its transfer in 1817 to Nizhny. Governor Bykhovets did everything possible to ensure that the trial fair of 1817 was liked by merchants and remained in Nizhny Novgorod forever. And the governor found warm support and energetic help from the young mayor Pereplyotchikov, who did everything in his power “to strengthen fair trade forever in Nizhny.” Fyodor Petrovich perfectly understood the importance of such a large marketplace for the development and prosperity of the city.

The young head of the city was noticed and appreciated by both his superiors and ordinary citizens.

For the second time as city mayor F.P. Bookbinders was elected for the period 1825-1827. And again he directed all his abilities and talents “to the benefit of his native city.” Thus, having arrived in 1826 at the coronation of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, Pereplyotchikov obtained an audience with the young Tsar and made an extremely great impression on Nicholas I. He told the emperor about his city so captivatingly that Nicholas “promised to honor Nizhny Novgorod with his Highest visit.” This promise was a great reward for the mayor and the city under his jurisdiction. In addition, during a conversation with the tsar, the practical Pereplyotchikov decided to ask for an increase in urban pasture land (for the “development of urban transport,” i.e., increasing the number of coachmen and, accordingly, the horse park). At the same time, Pereplyotchikov raised and managed to resolve the issue of transferring coachmen from the peasant class to the bourgeois class. This fact is very significant, given the serfdom of the peasants.

Since Pereplyotchikov came to power, the life of the city has been boiling and seething. The work of sanitary and medical services will improve - the mayor personally monitors “the spread of smallpox vaccination in the city.” On the initiative of Pereplyotchikov, the Duma is discussing the issue of improving the living and working conditions of barge haulers; The construction of a charity house for the poor and retired honored soldiers begins, as well as preparations for the construction of special military barracks in order to relieve the townspeople from the hardships of military service.

For the third and last time as mayor F.P. Bookbinders visited from 1834 to 1836. In 1834, Emperor Nicholas I visited Nizhny Novgorod. The Emperor was very dissatisfied with the layout and structure of the city. Being a man knowledgeable in architecture, he left very clear detailed instructions to the city authorities about the reconstruction of the city. The energetic mayor immediately began to implement them.

On August 15, 1836, Nicholas I visited Nizhny Novgorod for the second time and showed Perepletchikov considerable respect and honor for his vigorous and fruitful activities. In the same 1836, Fyodor Petrovich completed his career as a public figure. And no matter how much Nizhny Novgorod residents tried to persuade him to take any post in public self-government, he invariably refused,